Rank-and-file Orangemen in Portadown have reacted angrily to an appeal from the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition for all parties involved in the Drumcree marching dispute to help devise a new talks procedure aimed at breaking the deadlock in the 14-month dispute.
The residents' coalition made its appeal following a meeting with the Northern Ireland Security Minister, Mr Adam Ingram, on Thursday, during which it put forward a series of new ideas on the controversial Drumcree parade.
The residents' coalition refused to elaborate on the new proposals, other than to say that it was time for the Drumcree talks process "to be widened out and properly structured for the future".
A spokesperson for the residents said: "Any new process must start off with a level playing field for all parties. In the past we have witnessed unfair and disproportionate political influence being bought to bear on various processes. That cannot be the case in the future".
However, the call for a new talks format on Drumcree has incensed the Portadown Orangemen who now accuse the Garvaghy Road residents of "attempting to dictate their specific terms for a resolution to the Drumcree Church parade".
"It's rich that Breandan Mac Cionnaith accuses Orangemen of holding out on Drumcree when he has been the major stumbling block to any form of progress to date," said the Portadown District press officer, Mr David Jones.
Portadown Orangemen reacted with open hostility towards Mr Mac Cionnaith's calls for a new talks structure to be defined.
"It's a complete and utter waste of time talking to these residents," said one Orangeman at Drumcree yesterday. "A year of talks and meetings did not get us down the Garvaghy Road. It's time we adopted stronger tactics, as it is obvious that violence, or the threat of violence, gets results. It appears that is the only message Mo Mowlam listens to.
"We complied with the district officers' request to keep this year's Drumcree march peaceful," added the Orangeman.
"What did it achieve? Absolutely nothing. We are still no further forward in relation to getting the march completed. There is now a growing belief within the Portadown Orangemen that the only way we will get down that road is to fight our way down it. We are not prepared to wait here for another year and the district officers should realise that."