NOBODY wanted to see the Orange Order parade "forced through" the Garvaghy Road in Portadown, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said in Belfast yesterday.
Later, back in Dublin, nationalist representatives from the Garvaghy Road and the Lower Ormeau Road requested that Mr Ahern ask the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, in London tomorrow, to re-route next Sunday's parade at Portadown.
They also asked Mr Ahern to express to Mr Blair their concerns and fears" about what lay ahead at the weekend.
Following a meeting with the Taoiseach yesterday in Government Buildings, groups from the two communities said he had taken on board everything they had to say and confirmed that he would convey their sentiments. He did not, however, give any indication of what decision he believed the British government should take.
According to Councillor Brendan Mac Cionnaith, a spokesman for the Garvaghy Residents' Coalition, the British government must take a "very clear decision" this weekend. The only "moral decision" it could take would be to re-route the Orange parade away from the Drumcree and Garvaghy Road and "give the nationalist people in Portadown the breathing space it so badly deserves".
"We left the Taoiseach in absolutely no doubt of the concerns and fears, the very real fears, which the nationalist people have in Portadown about what is about to happen this weekend," Mr Mac Cionnaith said.
Asked if Mr Ahern supported the decision to hold vigils between now and Sunday, he replied that the Taoiseach would be willing to support any kind of peaceful action.
"All we are advocating in Portadown is peaceful action. The people here threatening violence are the people who will be parading to Drumcree and the politicians who go there with them," he added.
Speaking to reporters after his visit to the ICTU conference in Belfast, Mr Ahern was asked what his Government's position would be if there was no agreement be-tween nationalists and unionists and the authorities in Northern Ireland were forced to make a decision on the route of the parade.
He said the position depended on what decision the authorities made. "Clearly nobody wants to see the march forced through as last year. Nobody wants to see people, 'ringed-in' as they were last year.
"But the Secretary of State is trying her best to find an accommodation and it's a very, very sensitive issue and a very, very delicate issue, and we certainly will discuss the issue further again on Thursday with the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair."
He said Dr Mowlam had made it clear to him that she did not accept that the strategy of trying to get local agreement was no longer valid. "She is determined still to keep up her efforts and I certainly support her in that and that's what she wants support in at this stage."
He would be passing this on to the residents of the Garvaghy Road later in the day.
Dr Mowlam did not accept the time had come for a "crunch" decision on the Garvaghy Road. "We still have four or five days we re still meeting and talking with the residents' groups; I don't accept yet that an accommodation is not possible because then you get people entrenching, you get the situation moving up to the kind of problem that we faced last year.
Carmel Rohinson adds
More than 1,000 people from the Garvaghy Road attended a packed hall in Portadown last night to finalise last-minute plans for this weekend's contentious Orange parade and to hear the latest report from the residents' meeting with Mr Ahern.
"I got the impression today that the Taoiseach realises that as the leader of nationalist Ireland he has a duty to all nationalists in Ireland, and he has a particular duty to those nationalist communities such as ours that are bearing the brunt of unionist and Orange domination," said Councillor Breandan Mac Cionnaith.
When asked by The Irish Times if that is what the Taoiseach said, Mr Mac Cionnaith said: "We had a private meeting. I am quite satisfied that the Taoiseach will live up to his responsibilities in regard to this community.
"If it comes the case where there is martial law, and let's be honest about it, people are concerned about China and Hong Kong and what the Chinese troops are going to do in Hong Kong, I wish some people would show some concern about what the RUC and what British troops are going to do to this community if the decision is taken to force this march through."
He said the question of having observers from the Irish Government on the Garvaghy Road is under "active consideration" by the Cabinet. He said he would like as many observers as possible, adding that already observers are coming from America, Europe, Britain and the Irish Republic.
Mr Mac Cionnaith said the Secretary of State, Dr Mo Mowlam, had undertaken to tell the residents personally of her decision on the route of the Orange march.
Mr Mac Cionnaith said that until such times as a decision is made he did not know what would happen. "But one thing you can be sure of, that it will be unacceptable for martial law to be imposed upon the nationalist people of Portadown to facilitate an Oranges march which this community does not want.
"There is a lot of concern about the possibilities of what can happen over the next couple of days, but there is a real determination among this community that there should be no Orange march on the Garvaghy Road."