IN AN interview yesterday with BBC Radio Ulster, Archbishop Robin Eames said. "We, as church leaders were invited a few days ago to meet David Trimble MP. He made the request that we should use our good offices to try and find if there wad any solution which could come up to get a better relationship between the order and the local residents.
"We worked extremely hard all through yesterday and most of last night. We resumed today in Portadown. We had hoped that we might be able to do some thing, not only for the short term but for the long term.
"It is a very, very difficult situation and obviously, as it was the start of that procedure, it took time. I have to say that it is quite incorrect to say that anyone sat for two hours and was not talked to or anything like that.
"We were going constantly because the two parties did not see each other face to face. They did not meet. We have done our best, our utmost, and the door is still open for us to bring some better understanding.
"I spoke to representatives of both communities as I've listened to both sections in the last few days and talked to them, not only in Drumcree. I met them with my colleagues the other church leaders in an attempt to see if there was some way we could respond to the request of finding a greater understanding between the two communities.
"Now, we are not politicians, we are church leaders. We are desperately concerned about the future of this province. We have done our utmost. We are exhausted after the work we have put in with very little sleep. I am sorry that we haven't at this stage managed to produce concrete results."
Dr Eames said he had spoken to Breandan Mac Cionnaith, of the Garvaghy Residents' Coalition, and that he had not been left incommunicado during the negotiations. "I spoke to him. I talked to him as I talked to the representatives of both traditions.
"There is no question of anyone, either on one side or the other, being left for that length of time without any contact being made. That is not true.
He refused to comment on the decision on the march. "It's a decision which has been taken by the Chief Constable.
"I am not concerned with security matters. I am concerned with trying to build a better society for the future. We believe, as church leaders, that a long term agreement is possible. We believe that the will is there. We just believe that it takes a bit longer.
"We were asked, in a relatively short time, to build some sort of bridge. It's not possible to do it in that time without a great deal of effort. We put that effort in. We were fulfilling our obligations as church leaders.
"I believe that some of the proposals that were being put forward could have been built on.
I believe that, in the long term, those proposals will come to pass.
We have got to appeal again to the people at this present time not to be sucked into the violence, not to be sucked into the negative nature of what we have seen recently.
"We have got to keep hope alive and build for that future. The RUC found itself in an absolutely impossible situation. I'm appealing to people to step back, to see that the long term is more important than the short term."