Nationalists have condemned the Parades Commission's decision to allow an Apprentice Boys' march down the Lower Ormeau Road in Belfast on Saturday. The commission yesterday announced that the parade could go ahead without restrictions.
Justifying his decision, the commission's chairman, Mr Alistair Graham, said there had been real dialogue between the Apprentice Boys and the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community (LOCC) which had demonstrated "significant commitment to addressing each other's concerns".
However, a statement issued by the Government last night seemed to question the extent of the dialogue. The statement said "it regretted that a resolution was not possible through dialogue at local level", and noted that the decision "will necessarily be controversial for one side of the community".
And a LOCC spokesman, Mr John Gormley, expressed the residents' anger. "Nobody has established the legitimacy of parades on this stretch of road. We will demonstrate that opposition in a determined and effective way, but in a peaceful way as we have always done," he said.
Mr Graham said there had been satisfactory meetings between the two sides. "This was not a cosmetic exercise, but the commission was satisfied that it was a substantive, sustained and genuine engagement over a period of months . . .
"It was unfortunate that there was no final agreement on next week's parade, which is why we have issued a determination, but that should not detract from the progress which has been made and to which we understand both parties are still committed," he said.
The Parades Commission chairman said he had been impressed by the Apprentice Boys' assurances that they would abide by the law whether the ruling was in their favour or not. He said he hoped the LOCC would provide similar assurances and abide by them "in a clearer way than they did in our last conversations with them".
Mr Gormley said the Apprentice Boys had rejected a compromise, and the ruling would make further dialogue difficult. "Our reaction to this parade being forced down by the Parades Commission is the same as our reaction was to parades being forced down by the RUC and anybody else," he said.
A spokesman for the Belfast Apprentice Boys, Mr Tommy Cheevers, said he was disappointed at the LOCC's reaction and that a peaceful protest was not necessarily a lawful one if they tried to block the road.
Last year the commission banned the Apprentice Boys from walking down the nationalist Lower Ormeau Road. This year, most decisions of the commission have gone in favour of nationalist residents' groups, the most noteworthy being the ruling in July which prevented Orangemen from parading down Garvaghy Road in Portadown.
It is believed that yesterday's decision could have been made in recognition of the Orangemen's restrained behaviour at Drumcree.