No breakthrough on Drumcree parade dispute

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This followed the failure to find a deal after more than two hours of talks on Thursday night between members of Portadown Orange Order and the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition (GRRC) with Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant at Hillsborough Castle.

Speaking after the talks, Sir Chris said: “We haven’t come to a settled agreement, and it’s a shame, but my door remains open.”

A fresh legal bid by lawyers for the residents to try to prevent the march from going ahead has been set for Monday.

The chairman of the GRRC, Breandan Mac Cionnaith, said there had been no “meeting of minds” adding that the current process is “done.”

When asked by reporters whether the Garvaghy Road would be blocked if Monday’s legal appeal failed, Mr Mac Cionnaith said: “That’s not my decision. As we have pointed out, there’s 4,000 people in our community signed a petition.

“Those 4,000 people deserve to have their voice heard.”

Speaking after the talks broke up Portadown District Master Nigel Dawson said: “Tonight remains as it has been: that we are in possession of a positive determination issued by the Parades Commission.

“It went through the Court of Appeal and the High Court sat on it and has decided that we have the right to walk down the Garvaghy Road back to Carleton Street Orange Hall, and I would now call on the secretary of state to apply the law.”

The Orange Order had been due to parade on Sunday but the march did not take place due to a large protest on the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road.

Protesters have continued to block the road while the Orange Order has maintained a presence at Drumcree Church, about a mile away.

Both parties were given a document at Hillsborough Castle on Wednesday.

Mr Dawson stressed the document was “not a proposal” while Mr Mac Cionnaith said his group would “agree to it, if the Orange Order did.”

The document reportedly said the Orange Order had the legal right to walk along the Garvaghy Road; that the residents would accept that legal entitlement and publicly accept that it was wrong to block the Orange Order from walking down the Garvaghy Road.

In return the Orange Order would choose not to walk down the road.

The Orange Order labelled the document “unacceptable.”