THE Church of Ireland Bishop of Down and Dromore, Dr Gordon McMullan, has dissociated himself from anti RUC remarks made by the Rev Bill Hoey at an Orange Order protest on Ormeau Bridge.
Mr Hoey, a Church of Ireland minister in south Belfast, said last Sunday that by rerouting an Orange parade away from the nationalist Lower Ormeau, the RUC was siding with the lawbreakers against the law keepers. He warned the RUC that it could cause the Protestant community to rise up and then the force would have "nowhere to run and nowhere to hide".
Dr McMullan described the comments as unhelpful and said he did not want to be identified with any remarks which could be interpreted as "threatening or intimidatory" towards the police.
He said the RUC faced an "impossible task" over the parades issue and was entitled to support, not threats. He added that most people would not identify with the "kind of language" that Mr Hoey had used.
Mr Hoey's comments, however, were defended by the Grand Master of the Orange Order, the Rev Martin Smyth MP. He said that they reflected a "growing mood of discontent" about the police rerouting of Orange marches.