Fermanagh Council's chairman, Mr Patrick McCaffrey, has called on the authorities to ban this weekend's contentious parades in Newtownbutler. His comments came as the RUC announced it had rerouted a march in nearby Roslea this Saturday evening.
Confirming yesterday that he had become involved in an attempt to resolve the issue, the chairman said authorities should take action against the Royal Black Institution's marches as they have done in other areas.
A non-party councillor who was in Newtownbutler on Sunday evening when six protesters and two RUC officers were injured, Mr McCaffrey condemned the police's action in removing nationalist residents from the path of the RBP parade.
Praising the Orange Order's decision to talk to the Newtownbutler Area Residents' Association which led to an agreement on July 12th, he said "unfortunately" the Royal Black Preceptory had not done likewise.
The Black Institution has refused to meet resident leaders because of the presence of a Sinn Fein member, Mr Kevin Lawrenson, on their committee. In Roslea, the Gordon and Nixon Memorial Lodge has refused talks with the Roslea Re-route Sectarian Marches Group which is headed by a local Sinn Fein councillor, Mr Brian McCaffrey.
RBP sources in Roslea said last night they would abide by the RUC decision to allow them to parade no farther than their hall on the outskirts of the village. In the past two years, marchers had paraded to police lines and then dispersed at the hall on the Lisnaskea Road.
The Newtownbutler RBP plans to hold morning and evening marches in the Border village on its way to and returning from the main county Black Institution demonstration at Maguiresbridge.
This weekend's disputed marches in Newtownbutler and Roslea are the last contentious parades of the marching season in the Border county. Mr Patrick McCaffrey said yesterday: "After what happened last Sunday evening, I trust it will be the last such parade in Newtownbutler and I believe the government must take action forthwith to prevent such actions happening again.
"Dialogue is the only way for agreement, and if either side is not prepared to sit down and talk to find a solution then the time has come for all coat-trailing displays of triumphalism to be banned."