SDLP deputy leader Mr Seamus Mallon today repeated his offer to meet Orangemen to help resolve the Drumcree dispute.
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SDLP deputy leader Mr Seamus Mallon
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Mr Mallon told Portadown Orangemen he was not prepared to meet them as a member of the Northern Executive but in his role as a party politician.
He said: "As the issue of parades is not a devolved matter I have proposed a meeting in my capacity of deputy leader of the SDLP."
But Portadown Orangemen have already rejected this offer. Yesterday they resumed their protest on Drumcree Hill after a month-long suspension because of the foot-and-mouth crisis.
At a special parade to mark the 1,000th day of the Drumcree stand-off, district master Harold Gracey said if they had wanted to meet the SDLP, they would have requested a meeting with its leader Mr John Hume.
An Orange Order delegation met the North's First Minister Mr David Trimble last week to press home their case for allowing them to march down the nationalist Garvaghy Road.
After the meeting, Mr Trimble called on the Northern Ireland Secretary Dr John Reid to become pro-active in trying to resolve the issue. He said the Parades Commission, set up by the government to rule on contentious marches, had been a failure.
The Orange Order has argued that the refusal to allow them to march was a breach of the European Charter of Human Rights. However, a Human Rights Commission report examining European legislation has concluded that they do not have an absolute right to march.
PA