Political and church pressure is mounting on the Portadown Orange Order to end its protest at Drumcree, and to have talks with Garvaghy Road residents. The North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, said yesterday that the order in Portadown had "got itself into a mess" and wasn't "thinking straight". The Church of Ireland and Presbyterian churches also urged an end to the protests.
Mr David McNarry, of the Grand Orange Lodge's strategy committee over Drumcree said the order was still intent on parading on Garvaghy Road. After that a resolution to Drumcree might be possible, he added.
The increasing pressure on the order was prompted by weekend rioting in Portadown in which a loyalist blast bomb seriously injured an RUC officer. Mr Trimble said proximity talks between the order and the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition should be reactivated and the order should end the protest immediately. "Sitting back and allowing people to use your cause as an excuse for fomenting riots and attacks of the sort we saw at the weekend is not the way forward." The Armagh Diocesan Council of the Church of Ireland called on the order to end the protest and said Garvaghy Road nationalists should "draw back from further confrontation".
Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith said if Mr McNarry were sincere he would sit down with him and Garvaghy residents to find a long-term solution to Drumcree and inter-community relation problems in Portadown.
