Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams has urged the Parades Commission to review its decision to allow a limited Orange Order march to pass through the flashpoint Workman Avenue "peace line" gates on to the nationalist Springfield Road in west Belfast, on Saturday.
Serious disturbances involving Orangemen, bands members and loyalist paramilitaries flared at last year's Whiterock parade, which was postponed from June to September, and there is growing concern over how this Saturday's parade will unfold.
The commission on Monday ruled that a single local Orange Order with district officers should be permitted pass through Workman Avenue from the general Shankill area on to the Springfield Road, while the main body of the parade should make its way on to the Springfield Road through the old Mackies industrial site.
Mr Adams, who met the Parades Commission in Belfast yesterday, urged that a satisfactory compromise was to allow the parade through the Mackies site.
"Rather than visit two Orange parades on the people of the Upper Springfield they should come up with a determination that upholds the rights, on the one hand, of the Orangemen but more particularly of the [nationalist] host community. And there is an alternative route through Mackies site," he said.
The commission is to consider this decision at a meeting today, although there are no indications it will change its determination.
Mr Adams appeared to acknowledge this likelihood when he said the commission "presumably would not easily overturn" its ruling.
Mr Adams said that Orange leaders should recognise the rights of nationalist residents and he hoped that "wiser voices within unionism" would see the commission's ruling as a "stupid decision and will seek to play their part in calming the situation".
When asked would there be trouble if the commission did not change its determination Mr Adams replied:
"Well, we will do our best, but we do our best against decisions that actually reward trouble. This trouble last year was arguably the worst rioting by loyalists - loyal to who? - in this city perhaps since the 1970s."
SDLP Assembly member Alex Attwood said the commission's ruling "was neither justified nor in the best interests of the local community".
