THE prospects of a compromise over Drumcree Three are becoming more and more remote even though the British government remains confident that there can be a resolution of the contentious parades issue.
As the annual Drumcree parade looms closer, loyalists and nationalists in Portadown are now even more deeply polarised. The Orange Order is insisting that its parade on Sunday, July 6th, must pass the nationalist Garvaghy Road while nationalist residents are adamant that, in the absence of negotiations, Orangemen will not pass through their community.
Loyalists and Orangemen rounded on the Parades Commission at a meeting in Portadown on Thursday night, leaving it in no doubt that there must be no compromise on their perceived right to parade down Garvaghy Road on the first Sunday in July. The Orange Order has given official notice to the RUC that it intends to proceed with its parade.
Equally, members of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition have insisted that without negotiations the Orangemen must re-route their parade. They have organised an open-air festival" for Garvaghy Road to coincide with the parade, a move which Mr Ken Maginnis of the Ulster Unionist Party described as "provocative".
There was evidence, too, of the potential of the whole parades controversy to inflame passions and cause trouble right across Northern Ireland. The Bogside Residents' Group has called on the Orange Order to reconsider its plans to stage one of its main Twelfth of July parades in Derry while the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community from Belfast yesterday urged the British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, to ban Orange parades through its area and along Garvaghy Road.
Members of the Lower Ormeau group yesterday handed in a letter at Downing Street calling on the government to make an early decision to re-route parades away from the two areas.
The demands only served to further deepen the divisions between the two sides. It prompted Mr Maginnis to claim that there was an orchestrated republican strategy to foment civil unrest over parades.
But Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, chief spokesman for the Garvaghy residents, said the festival was no more provocative than the Orange Order giving notification of its plan to march down Garvaghy Road.
In Portadown on Thursday night the Parades Commission's argument that dialogue and local accommodation are the key to a resolution of the issue was ridiculed. It was the "most voluble" expression of the Protestant view-point he had ever experienced, said the commission chairman, Mr Alistair Graham.
A survey by the Police Authority published yesterday found that "the credibility of the RUC among Catholics and nationalists has suffered damage in the aftermath of the Drumcree standoff". It found that support for reform of the RUC in the Catholic community now stands at around 52 per cent, with over one-third wanting the force replaced or disbanded.
The hopes for an eleventh-hour resolution may now rest with the two main unionist and nationalist leaders, Mr David Trimble and Mr John Hume, who jointly held meetings with Orange Order leaders last week. They would not give details of the meeting but said they were determined to continue their efforts towards a resolution of the problem.
Despite all the negativity, London sources said the British government was still determinedly confident that a solution could be found.
