ORANGEMEN IN Portadown have again been denied permission to complete their annual Drumcree church parade tomorrow by parading along the nationalist Garvaghy Road in the town.
Tomorrow’s Somme commemoration march marks the 10th consecutive year that permission to use the contentious route has been withheld by the Parades Commission.
Despite the ban, the PSNI presence is expected to be light amid an atmosphere in the area which is said to be much more relaxed compared to the tension of previous, violent years.
An Orange Order spokesman said last night it was expected that Darryl Hewitt, the local District Master, would restate an offer to talk without preconditions and under independent chairmanship to the Garvaghy Road residents.
However, Garvaghy residents spokesman Breandán MacCionnaith said he did not believe Orange representatives were genuinely willing to discuss parading with an open mind.
He cited applications for a series of disputed marches in Portadown this month in support of his claim.
“One of the first things that Mr Hewitt is going to have to take into account is the reality on the ground that the overwhelming majority of people here don’t want a march,” he said.
Suggesting a possible way out of the impasse, he added: “There is a less contentious alternative route available to the Orange Order and there is no logical reason why the Orange Order cannot take that route.”
A reliable Orange source described the 12 months since last year’s banned return parade from Drumcree as “a year of outreach” and he referred to talks between the order and a range of Catholic church figures and nationalist and republican political representatives, including Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams.
SDLP Assembly member Dolores Kelly said relations were improving and contacts between unionist and nationalist sides were developing slowly but positively.
“Things are starting to happen now, the atmosphere is more relaxed,” she said.
“Better policing is changing the atmosphere and people are regularly going to community meetings, people are talking.”