The North's Security Minister, Mr Adam Ingram, has said he believes an accommodation could be reached before next month's controversial Apprentice
Boys' parade in Derry.
Mr Ingram's comments followed a private meeting with members of the
Apprentice Boys in Derry yesterday morning.
The Minister viewed the walls of Derry, including the stretch overlooking the
Bogside area, along which the Apprentice Boys intend to parade on August 9th. On the evening of August 8th, the Bogside Residents Group plans to hold five parades in the city centre.
Speaking after his meeting with the Governor of the Apprentice Boys, Mr
Alastair Simpson, the Minister said he told Mr Simpson that while the British government supported the right to march it was strongly of the view that local accommodation should be sought.
Mr Ingram said he urged the Apprentice Boys to take the opportunity to see if a resolution could be found to any problems. "We have come through what could have been a very difficult period recently and come out of it with the right decisions," he said. "Hopefully, we will get the right decision here as well, which everyone can live with and can move forward on the back of that . . .
"I work on the basis of optimism. We have moved forward a lot in the last few weeks and I am hopeful some accommodation can be reached here as well. "I think there is a new mood around. I think people are prepared to learn the lessons of previous weeks and years and to move forward. "There is a spirit of a new approach, and it is breaking down some of the hostilities and animosities of the past to reach those points of accommodation, and I think there is as greater willingness to do that," he said.
PA adds:
The Northern Ireland Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, has insisted the memo outlining options available to security forces leading up to the controversial Drumcree
Orange parade was not made available to Irish civil servants in the Anglo-Irish secretariat at Hillsborough.
Ms Mowlam, pressed by Ulster Unionist deputy leader, Mr John Taylor, on the leaking of the document, said yesterday in a parliamentary written reply that it had only been copied to the British side of the Anglo-Irish Secretariat.
The contents showed officials believed allowing the march to go ahead earlier this month was the "least worst option".