THE Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, yesterday met the Orange leader and a loyalist right to march group in Belfast in an attempt to resolve the parades controversy as the marching season approaches.
She also met representatives of the Apprentice Boys organisation in Derry, where she said she was "encouraged" by the "crucial" exchanges.
In Belfast Dr Mowlam met the order's Grand Master, Mr Robert Saulters, and other members of the Grand Orange Lodge. Both sides described the talks as "constructive and useful".
Speaking to journalists outside the order's headquarters, the Northern Secretary said that nationalist residents' groups largely represented the views of nationalist residents. They were undemocratic, in the sense that they were not elected and Sinn Fein members were clearly involved in some areas, but the groups were genuinely reflective of local feeling, she said.
Dr Mowlam later met Ms Pauline Gilmore of the loyalist group ORDER (Ormeau Residents Demand Equal Rights). As she entered the meeting on the Upper Ormeau Road in south Belfast, she tried to shake hands with a local resident, who greeted her with the words "No surrender".
In Derry, after meeting leaders of the Apprentice Boys organisation, Dr Mowlam said: "Crucial meetings like this will, I hope, ameliorate the problems that we have seen in previous years and I think it's very important for both communities and for Northern Ireland that we don't see a repeat of the last two years.
"I have been here listening and I do hope in the end that accommodation can be reached because local accommodation is the only way forward. I think that Derry last year showed the way forward for Northern Ireland. I think part of the problem is, as you know, the makeup of the residents' groups around Northern Ireland. I don't think it's constructive to say that people won't talk.
"I was very encouraged. I found a willingness to listen and a willingness to talk and to accommodate, but I don't think it's helpful to start negotiations on the media. I do think it's important to talk across the board."
Last year the Apprentice Boys were prohibited from marching on Derry's ancient walls in their annual August parade by the then secretary of state, Sir Patrick Mayhew.
Dr Mowlam's meeting with the Apprentice Boys took place less than 200 yards from Derry's courthouse, where charges relating to public order offences committed during last year's Drumcree standoff were being heard. Several dozen people, among them the Mayor of Derry, Alderman Richard Dallas, an Apprentice Boy, were on the court list on charges.
Immediately after his meeting with the Secretary of State, Mr Alistair Simpson, the governor of the Apprentice Boys, again ruled out talks with the Bogside Residents' Group prior to both the annual Apprentice Boys parade in August and the Co Derry Orange parade in Derry on July 12th.
"I have been asked that question a thousand times over. My answer is still the same - we will not be talking to the Bogside Residents' Group. We will talk to any other group that wants to talk," he declared.
Asked if the Apprentice Boys would meet any agreed third party, Mr Simpson said: "We will talk to people who want to talk constructively about the situation in this city. It's crucial to everyone that we get the marches over without confrontation. It's especially crucial to the people of this city."
Meanwhile Mr Donnacha Mac Niallais, spokesman for the Bogside Residents' Group, said he still had not given up hope of a meeting with the Apprentice Boys.
"We were in the same position this time last year and we had meetings," he observed.