The Bogside Residents Group has said there will be no nationalist protests in Derry on Saturday during the Apprentice Boys of Derry parade, following an agreement between the residents and representatives of the Loyal Order. The commitment was given following talks last night between the residents and representatives of the Loyal Order.
Chaired by Mr Garvan O'Doherty and Mr Brendan Duddy of the Town Centre Management Group, the talks ended weeks of speculation about the annual parade which has been marred by violence in recent years.
Speaking after the second series of talks between the two groups, Mr Duddy last night described the breakthrough as excellent news. "Tonight's meeting was extremely positive. We will have a good peaceful day on Saturday. It was never going to be any other way. Tonight's meeting was simply excellent," he said.
Mr O'Doherty said both sides had agreed to have a protest-free day. "We were focused on getting both sides together to produce results and we feel now we are producing results. The process has been successful and there will be tangible benefits from that."
A spokesman for the Bogside Residents Group, Mr Donnacha Mac Niallais, said his group had reached an understanding with the Apprentice Boys.
"It's an agreement for this weekend. There are outstanding issues that we have to deal with. We would appeal to members of the Apprentice Boys coming to Derry to respect the wishes of the people of this city. We appeal to young people within the nationalist community not to be provoked into confrontation."
"There will be no opposition from the Bogside Resident Group to the Apprentice Boys commemorations in Derry this coming Saturday," he said.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland's Parades Commission has rerouted a contentious Apprentice Boys' parade, scheduled for Saturday, away from south Belfast's predominantly nationalist lower Ormeau Road.
The march, which is a feeder parade for the larger Relief of Derry parade, involves about two dozen members of the Walker Club - a Belfast branch of the Apprentice Boys - who would walk down the Ormeau Road before being taken by bus to the main rally in Derry.
In its ruling, the Parades Commission said its decision had not been influenced by the unofficial poll held on the lower Ormeau Road last week, in which 95 per cent of residents said they were opposed to loyalist parades.
The commission believed that a long-term agreement between the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community and the Apprentice Boys still remained possible and wanted to create the "right atmosphere for genuine dialogue".
One obstacle to this was the perception of the commission's individual decisions as "victory" for one side and "defeat" for the other.
"To help remove this obstacle, the commission has invited two people to talk to the LOCC and the Apprentice Boys to seek a deal about which Apprentice Boys' parades should be allowed along the lower Ormeau Road in the period through to December 2002." It is likely that the Apprentice Boys will accept the commission's ruling, proceeding as far as Ormeau Bridge where they are expected to hand over a letter of protest to the RUC.
The Democratic Unionist Party said the decision was "disgraceful" and the "latest denial of civil liberties" to Protestants.