Members of the Bogside Residents Group (BRG) in Derry will tonight be asked to withdraw all opposition to Saturday's Apprentice Boys parade. The request will come from the BRG spokesman, Mr Donnacha Mac Niallais, who yesterday, with four BRG committee members, met the city's Mayor, Mr Martin Bradley, and Mr Ian Young, president of the Derry Chamber of Commerce. It was the second such meeting in two days.
Following the meeting, Mr Mac Niallais said that because of the RUC's decision to place restrictions on the Apprentice Boys' feeder parades next Saturday morning in Bellaghy, Dunloy and Belfast's Lower Ormeau Road, his group had decided to withdraw its proposed parades in the centre of Derry on Friday night.
"We will also be strongly recommending at tomorrow's public meeting that the various Apprentice Boys parades in Derry on Saturday should be allowed to take place without interference.
"We are looking towards this weekend in a spirit of accommodation which we hope will be reciprocated by the Apprentice Boys.
"One way the Apprentice Boys could do that is for them to decide not to raise the Union Jack flag at Walker's plinth, which directly overlooks the Bogside. There is no historical basis for that.
"We have no objections to the flying of the crimson flag and if they do fly the Union Jack flag we have put forward alternatives such as the Heroes' Mound at St Columb's Cathedral or the part of the walls overlooking the loyalist Fountain Estate.
"We are approaching the weekend in a spirit of accommodation. We are prepared for the challenges ahead and we trust that the Apprentice Boys are similarly prepared", he said.
The Mayor, Mr Bradley, said he was delighted that an agreement on Saturday's parade had been reached.
"This goes to show what can be achieved when negotiations and dialogue take place. Obviously, I would have preferred direct dialogue between the Apprentice Boys and the Bogside Residents' Group.
"It is crucially important that once the parades are over dialogue is maintained. Obviously the resolution of the potentially problematical feeder parades played a major part in this agreement," he said.
The Governor of the Apprentice Boys, Mr Alistair Simpson, said he believed Saturday's parade, which is expected to include over 10,000 of his members, would pass off peacefully.
"Obviously the decision of the police to reroute some of the feeder parades has disappointed my members in Bellaghy, Dunloy and the Lower Ormeau Road, but they have reassured me that they will keep within the law.
"I hope it doesn't affect Saturday's parade. I have invited the brethren to the parade. This is the main part of our celebrations and we will have our parade peacefully and go home peacefully," he said.