The Orange Order and the DUP have strongly criticised the visit to Northern Ireland yesterday by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, during which he met members of the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community group, which has campaigned against loyalist marches.
Mr Andrews's visit to the Lower Ormeau in south Belfast coincided with the sixth anniversary of a UDA gun attack on a local betting office in which five people were killed. The Minister laid a floral tribute at the memorial to the victims, which he said symbolised his feelings about all the deaths during the Troubles.
The DUP and the Orange Order were highly critical of Mr Andrews's visit. Mr Ian Paisley jnr, of the DUP, said it was "a one-sided visit intended to insult victims of the IRA". He claimed that Mr Andrews had shown no interest in commemorating Protestants from the area who had been killed by republicans.
The local district master of the Orange Order, Mr Noel Liggett, said that Mr Andrews had effectively endorsed the LOCC campaign of opposition to loyalist marches by meeting it. "This was a very political visit and highly insensitive to the loyalist community", he said. "It contradicts the Dublin Government's claim to be impartial in its dealings with Northern Ireland."
Mr Andrews insisted that his visit was "non-threatening". He was there with a "message of peace and hope" and not to support the Lower Ormeau residents' stance on the parades issue.
However, Mr Gerard Rice, of the LOCC, said that the Minister had been sympathetic to the residents. "The visit was a tremendous success. We expressed our belief that parades must be rerouted away from the Lower Ormeau Road and the Minister undertook to press our case strongly with the British government."
Mr Andrews also visited Co Down, where he met fishermen in the mainly Protestant town of Kilkeel. Later he met two UUP councillors in Newcastle.
In a statement which seemed to be aimed at reassuring nationalists about the direction of the multiparty talks, Mr Andrews said: "There can be, and will be, no return to the old-style Stormont. In fairness, none of the unionist parties now advocates such a step. The position of the two governments is also crystal-clear. In the Framework Document, we confirmed that cross-community agreement is an essential requirement for the establishment and operation of structures in Northern Ireland."
The exact details of a future assembly were currently under negotiation, but everyone knew there would have to be built-in guarantees to protect both communities. "Effectively, an assembly will only be able to work through broad cross-community agreement and through partnership", he said.
Mr Andrews emphasised that there was no question of a purely internal settlement. "The very existence of the Strand Two and Strand Three negotiations makes it apparent that there must also be North-South and East-West structures and arrangements.
"Strong and meaningful North-South structures, including the creation of bodies with executive functions in a number of key sectors, and with a capacity to evolve further over time, have in my view to be a central part of any settlement. But they, too, must work through agreement and be democratically accountable. In developing the relationship on this island, partnership and compromise must be our watchwords."