Northern Ireland's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, yesterday condemned the violence which surrounded the Drumcree parade and called for a halt to such action.
After a meeting with the Parades Commission, which on Monday banned Portadown Orangemen from marching along Garvaghy Road next Sunday, he said violence would not advance any cause
Mr Trimble also attacked comments by the Taoiseach in which Mr Ahern welcomed the ban and suggested a moratorium on all parades. He said Mr Ahern should look to his own capital, where Orangemen had been prevented from marching earlier this summer, before making suggestions about other areas.
However, Mr Trimble said he was "very disappointed" that the commission did not act on a proposal from Portadown Unionist councillors. The proposal was that a parade should take place on Garvaghy Road on Sunday, followed the next day by a civic forum involving both the Orangemen and the Garvaghy residents to seek a long-term resolution.
He said he knew what the commission had tried to do by holding out some sort of "vague offer" of a future parade. But there had been too much ambiguity in the ruling. "The commission had made the mistake of rewarding intransigence by saying they cannot envisage circumstances in which there will be a walk without local accommodation."