A senior Ulster Unionist has challenged the Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, to provide concrete evidence of his good intentions towards unionism by allowing the Orange Order parade down Garvaghy Road in Portadown this July.
The Lagan Valley MP, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, said that in the absence of republican actions matching republican deeds, most unionists would treat Mr Adams's overtures to unionism with cynicism.
The anti-Belfast Agreement Ulster Unionist was reacting to Mr Adams's statement on Sunday, when he personally appealed to unionists to accept that he was sincere in saying he wanted to reach out to unionism.
"Republicans at all levels must reach out to unionists as part of a process of national reconciliation," he said.
Mr Donaldson said he did not accept Mr Adams's bona fides. "His words do not sit easily with the reality of the republican movement," Mr Donaldson told The Irish Times yesterday.
Mr Donaldson said a practical way of demonstrating that republicans were sincere would be for republicans to cease their opposition to Orange parades.
While it is the Garvaghy Residents' Association which formally opposes the Orange Order parade from Drumcree church in early July, Mr Donaldson said that Mr Adams had the power to call off the nationalist protests against the parade.
"Were republicans to stand aside and let the Orangemen down Garvaghy Road, that would send a powerful signal that the attitude of republicans was changing," he added.
Mr Donaldson also said he was confident an Ulster Unionist Council (UUC) meeting would be held next month to reject the proposals in the Hillsborough Joint Declaration.
Four committees of the Ulster Unionist Party have studied various elements of the declaration. Their findings are to be considered by party officers and the UUP executive.
Mr Donaldson did not believe a UUC meeting could tolerate proposals that would ensure liberty for IRA fugitives and lead to "premature demilitarisation" and further undermine policing.
