The Orange Order has withdrawn from the Currin initiative, aimed at resolving the 40-month-long Drumcree dispute, because the "talks were not going anywhere".
The decision to withdraw follows an incident last Sunday when, according to the order, police prevented six of its members who were returning from a protest at Drumcree Parish Church from walking through a nationalist area of Portadown.
Although the men were allowed to proceed after half-an-hour, the Deputy District Master of Portadown District Lodge, Mr David Burrows, said he was unhappy at the response of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition.
"The next day, a spokesperson for the residents said if this was going to happen, they were going to . . . mobilise people on the Garvaghy Road to stop people walking to and from church", he said. "It's not just an Orange parade that the residents are objecting to, it's also Protestant feet."
Mr Burrows said yesterday that the South African human rights lawyer Mr Brian Currin, who was appointed as mediator in June 2000, had been informed of the order's decision to disengage by letter. It was the view of the Orange Order that Mr Currin's efforts at mediation would inevitably fail when faced with those who had "no genuine desire to participate in mediation and invariably move the goalposts at every juncture". The district had thanked Mr Currin for all his efforts, which unfortunately had been "in vain".
Portadown Loyal Orange Lodge Number One, which has been staging weekly Sunday protests at Drumcree since July 1988, had co-operated fully with Mr Currin over the past 18 months and had met him last week before his return to South Africa, Mr Burrows said.
The Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge, Mr Robert Saulters, said any chance of resolving the Drumcree dispute now lay with the British government. "I think it's time Dr Reid stopped fobbing us off to individuals and started to put something in place himself", he said.
The Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition has disputed the Orange Order's version of events last Sunday. Its chairman, Mr Breandβn Mac Cionnaith, said that 10 members of the Portadown lodge had been escorted by police from Drumcree Parish Church through the nationalist area to a meeting at an Orange hall.
Mr Mac Cionnaith said this breached an earlier Parades Commission determination. "The definition of a public procession under the legislation is one that travels on the public highway, and this includes footpaths", he said.
The Sinn FΘin MLA for Upper Bann, Ds Dara O Hagan, said that the Orange Order's decision to withdraw from the Currin initiative showed it had no real wish to engage in dialogue. "Time and again, processes aimed at resolving this issue have been set in motion only to fall apart when the Orange Order walked away, refusing to co-operate", she said. "Unfortunately, to date, the Orange Order has refused to talk to the residents of the Garvaghy Road."