The Apprentice Boys of Derry have agreed to significantly reduce the number of marchers due to take part in Saturday's Relief of Derry parade. Mr Alistair Graham, chairman of the North's Parades Commission, said the Apprentice Boys had told him that only 3,000 marchers would take part in the parade through Derry's city centre, half the normal number. Yesterday he held an hour-long meeting with the Apprentice Boys.
Meanwhile, Mr Alistair Simpson, governor of the Apprentice Boys, said Saturday's parade would be "modest" but he refused to get involved in what he called "the numbers game".
"We have over the last month had meetings with a wide range of people in this city; with a cross-section of people. We have discussed everything possible aimed at having a peaceful parade.
"We will be walking around the Diamond just once to pay our respect to those members of our association who died in the wars. We will be having a modest parade.
"Modest will reveal itself on Saturday; at the moment I'm not going into the numbers game. We feel that in doing this we have gone out of our way to try to bring this city on Saturday to a respectful situation for the traders and for the people who wish to shop. . . We have also notified all branches to restrict alcohol and not to bring it into the city."
The Apprentice Boys' decision to reduce its numbers came 24 hours after RUC chiefs in the city warned that Saturday's parade, combined with an expected counter-rally by the Bogside Residents Group (BRG), posed the potential for serious conflict. The BRG said it planned to hold a protest rally along the route of the parade if the Apprentice Boys ignored its call to reroute away from the Diamond.
Mr Graham said he was encouraged after his meeting with the Apprentice Boys. "We are encouraged that they said they would only go around the Diamond once, so reducing the likelihood of tension, and that they have gone to considerable lengths to talk to the RUC about how alcohol can be eliminated as a major problem on Saturday.
"I was here last August and it seemed that drink was part of the elements that can lead to tensions and the arrangements that seem to be put in place to ensure that alcohol is not on buses and that people are not carrying alcohol are a great improvement and could be of a wider significance to the rest of the province."
However, the BRG said in a statement that if the Apprentice Boys continued to refuse to have a face-to-face meeting with them, Saturday's protest rally, timed to coincide with the parade, would go ahead.