The Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, the Very Rev John Paterson, has condemned the Orange Order for what he described as "its contribution to the deaths of the Quinn children".
He said: "Three young children died, deliberately burned to death in their homes, and all because of a couple of hundred yards of road. Decent members of the Orange Order may not bear direct responsibility, and most will regret this tragedy, but their unyielding attitude and the support they are accepting from off-line thugs means their hands are not clean."
In a sermon last Sunday Dean Paterson said that the churches had "a lot to answer for the situation in which we find ourselves". He continued: "The Church of Ireland says it has no links with the Orange Order. That's only a sort of half-truth we should be ashamed to make. Of course, there is no official link. Nor do the Presbyterian or Methodist Churches have direct links. But many of their members are Orangemen, and church leaders condone this on the grounds that most Orangemen are quiet and peaceable members of the community. But what cannot be condoned, and what must be condemned, is the official attitude of the order that claims the right to walk wherever and whenever it wishes. That claim has never been clearly condemned by any Church Synod, Presbyterian Assembly or Methodist Conference. The churches have funked doing so because they keep looking at their declining membership."
Until we came to accept the basic promises of the Good Friday Agreement and the common name of Irish men and women, whatever their political or religious affiliation, these troubles would continue.
He urged the leaders of the churches to walk hand in hand from Drumcree to Garvaghy Road. "If the four church leaders, walking hand in hand together, would take the risk of being in Drumcree and on the Garvaghy Road, they might be manhandled, but they are unlikely to be killed. It would certainly be a frightening experience. But, without a hands-on approach, their words have now become meaningless."