The Catholic Primate and Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Sean Brady, has called for "real serious talking" to take place in an effort to resolve the Drumcree standoff and the violence which has erupted elsewhere in the North.
Interviewed on RTE Radio's This Week programme, while he was in Portadown speaking at Masses, Dr Brady was asked whether news of the Ballymoney arson attack earlier yesterday had changed the atmosphere. He replied: "Certainly, I think there is an atmosphere of horror at what has happened. People are saddened and shocked and, I'm sure, angry. But I have been appealing to them to remain calm, to remain peaceful and, of course, we bring the dear ones who have died before the Lord in prayer. But the people are, I think, fairly calm because they have been hearing it in churches and halls where they've come in good numbers. But they're apprehensive about what might happen in the future."
Asked whether the nationalist residents of Garvaghy Road should scale down their protest, he said:
"I would say to them to get into the talks and stay in those talks and keep negotiating in the spirit of the (Belfast) Agreement which gave so much hope to people in its spirit of respect for different cultures, in the spirit of mutual trust, to try and build up that from now on. Real serious talking must begin and it must be along those lines by which the agreement was reached because that is the great hope for the future.
"And I would say to them to engage seriously in talking not just about the march but a lot of issues that are relevant here in Portadown - the issues which are of concern to themselves about exclusion from the centre of the town, but also to take on board the fears which the Orange people have about their culture being threatened. To reassure people that in the spirit of the agreement there is to be respect for all cultures and respect for the right to express that culture.
"I think that needs to be taken on board and needs to be discussed. But that discussion needs to begin now. It should have begun ages ago. These discussions have been placed in an impossible position because they've come at the last moment. To build up this new atmosphere, this new relationship, because if we keep harping back to conflicting rights, it hasn't borne much fruit in the past and I don't know whether it will now. But this new spirit of co-operation and partnership - that's what must be advocated, that's what must be inculcated.
Have you and other church leaders done enough to bring that about? "Nobody has done enough to avoid the kind of tragedies that have happened today, but we have tried. Unfortunately, it has taken too much time and too much sorrow to bring us to this point. But I hope that from now on people will realise where we stand and to pull back from the abyss."
Can you see the Catholic residents of the Garvaghy Road conceding the Orangemen's right to march?
"They must be engaged in serious negotiations. I mean, they have put forward various points. They must be engaged on, and who knows? We're always hopeful that solutions will be found."