North’s main parties begin talks ahead of marching season

The North’s five main parties have begun six days of talks to determine if any progress can be made on parades, flags and the past ahead of the peak of the marching season on Saturday week, the Twelfth of July.

Two sets of three-day negotiations are taking place at Parliament Buildings, Stormont this week and next week involving senior negotiators from the DUP, Sinn Féin, the SDLP, the Ulster Unionist Party and Alliance.

The talks began today at Stormont. First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness are also meeting British prime minister David Cameron in Downing Street while in addition Sinn Féin will hold separate talks with Mr Cameron.

The Stormont talks are taking up on the last year's negotiations chaired by US diplomat Dr Richard Haass and his colleague Harvard Professor Meghan O'Sullivan which concluded at the new year with Dr Haass publishing his best-read proposals on how to address the three contentious issues of the past, flags and parades.

These effectively were endorsed by Sinn Féin, the SDLP and Alliance, although with reservations, while the DUP and Ulster Unionists refused to sign up to the proposals.

Before beginning the talks Sinn Féin negotiator Gerry Kelly said the talks were the only show in town.

“There is a lot of scepticism out there but from our point of view we are going into these talks on the principles of the Good Friday Agreement and we will go in on the basis of where we got to at Christmas and the new year,” he said.

“We are up for the job. As Martin McGuinness said we are ready to do this throughout the summer, however long it takes,” he added.

“These three toxic issues need sorted out and we have a chance of doing that. The pressure is on and the pressure should be on.”

SDLP leader Dr Alasdair McDonnell said the British and Irish governments must get involved in the efforts to deal with the issues. “We believe it is time to get things sorted out. We believe it is time for the two governments to get directly involved. We have been working around this long enough,” he said.

Alliance leader David Ford said compromise was essential. “Alliance is going into these talks with a determination that we use these six days to deal with the outstanding issues. We need to have an agreement on the past for the sake of victims and because it is costing huge sums for the justice system,” he said.

“We need to deal with the contentious issues of flags which are all across Belfast annoying people and we also need deal with parades. Those, if people are willing, can be resolved in six days of intensive talks. It is now up to others not to demand that they get their own way on everything but that they agree an honourable compromise,” added Mr Ford.

DUP and Ulster Unionist negotiators made no comment as the talks started. They stated beforehand however that they would not tackle the issue of the past in these negotiations. They said they would not talk about the past until sometime after Lady Justice Hallett has publishes her report into the on the runs controversy on July 17th.

Lady Justice Hallett is inquiring into the issuing of comfort letters to more than 200 republicans telling them they did not face prosecution for any paramilitary offences.

Sinn Féin, the SDLP and Alliance want the past on the current agenda.