The Apprentice Boys of Derry last night described as "morally wrong" a decision by the North's Parades Commission to amend the return route of its parade next Saturday in Derry.
Several thousand Apprentice Boys are expected in Derry to commemorate the Shutting of the Gates, when 13 apprentices closed the gates of Derry in 1689 against the advancing Jacobite army.
The Parades Commission made its ruling yesterday after talks aimed at brokering a deal before Saturday's parade ended in failure. Under the conditions imposed by the commission, the return parade will be diverted away from the Diamond area of the city centre into the loyalist Fountain Estate, but the initial parade will be allowed into the Diamond.
Mr Billy Moore, the Apprentice Boys' general secretary, said the commission's decision was wrong "both morally and practically" and showed "scant regard for the traditions of the Protestant people of Londonderry". "We walk in an ordered and disciplined manner year on year, and there has been no reason given for anyone to believe they would not do so again on Saturday," he said.
The governor of the Apprentice Boys, Mr Alistair Simpson, said his organisation had exhausted all possibilities in attempting to reach an accommodation. "We did our very best, we could do no more," he said.
A spokesman for the Parades Commission said it recognised the imaginative steps taken by the Apprentice Boys in attempting to bring about an inclusive approach to the parades.