Wise counsel must prevail to ensure a relatively peaceful Drumcree next Sunday, the Acting Chief Constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Mr Colin Cramphorn, has urged.
Mr Cramphorn this week met the British army to plan how police and troops will manage the Orange Order parade to Drumcree church, which, as in recent years, has been banned by the Parades Commission from returning down the nationalist Garvaghy Road.
Mr Cramphorn told yesterday's meeting of the Policing Board that it was very difficult to predict whether Sunday's parade and protests might pass off peacefully. He hoped, however, that the difficult period from Drumcree through the Twelfth of July would be calm.
Other parades had taken place with the minimum of disruption this marching season in Northern Ireland because of wise counsel and he hoped for similar attitudes at Drumcree on Sunday.
The Representative Body of the Church of Ireland said that the Northern Secretary, Dr John Reid, had taken temporary possession of land around Drumcree church in advance of Sunday's parade, as has happened in previous years.
A major security operation will again be in place at Drumcree on Sunday, but it is expected that the level of security will be scaled down on previous years.
The Representative Body said that while the local Drumcree vestry was responsible for day-to-day management of parochial church property, it "deplores any use of Church of Ireland property for political purposes, violence or demonstrations".
"It is to be earnestly hoped, therefore, that some local accommodation may be found, satisfactory to all parties, which will avoid any further violence or civil unrest at Drumcree this year," the Representative Body stated.
The North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, yesterday again appealed for the Parades Commission to reverse its decision.
