The general public is demanding dialogue between loyalist and nationalist groups to resolve contentious parades, the chairman of the Parades Commission, Mr Alistair Graham, said yesterday.
With 65 days to Drumcree, Mr Graham said there was overwhelming community support for the proposal that the Orange Order should talk directly to the Parades Commission. There was also "a very considerable impatience among the Protestant community" about the unwillingness to engage in negotiations.
He called for dialogue as a Church of Ireland sub-committee decided against urging its General Synod to allow bishops ban contentious services. Such a move could have had implications for the regular service at Drumcree church, which takes place ahead of the annual contentious march.
Drumcree has exposed divisions within the church with some members favouring the local bishop - in this case the Primate, Archbishop Robin Eames of Armagh - having the authority to ban Orangemen from attending the annual Drumcree service. The Drumcree rector, the Rev John Pickering, has rejected calls for him to oppose Orangemen holding the service in his church.
A special church sub-committee, of which Archbishop Eames is a member, has concluded that a proposal to allow such bans would not have the support of its General Synod, which is due to meet in Dublin in mid-May.
Mr Graham, in publishing the first annual report of the Parades Commission yesterday, said he was maintaining an open mind about whether Portadown Orangemen would be allowed to parade down Garvaghy Road on July 4th. The commission's decision would be guided by how the Orangemen and the Garvaghy residents' group attempted to resolve the dispute.
"The decision can go either way, and that is the message that I am giving as an incentive to all the parties to genuinely get involved in discussions to find a local solution. That's really what the people of Portadown and of Northern Ireland are desperate to see, because they are sick year after year of the rising tensions," he said.
"Last year's decision was last year's decision," he added. "We have not, I repeat not, come to any conclusion about Drumcree 1999. We never give up hope of there being local agreement. But in the absence of any such agreement we will not hesitate to do our statutory duty."
In the face of the continuing stalemate, he said, there was public support for dialogue as the way out of the problem. A survey for the commission found that 86 per cent of the 1,000 respondents wanted the disputing sides to talk to resolve Drumcree and other contentious parades.
"Of Protestants questioned 81 per cent agreed, while for Catholics the figure was 93 per cent," Mr Graham added; 82 per cent of respondents wanted the Orange Order to end its ban on talking to the Parades Commission.
The poll results, he said, "confirm the commission's consistent view that, in applying its statutory criteria, it should be strongly influenced by the willingness of all parties to engage with each other, to find a local solution".
(A recent Irish Times/RTE poll found that 47 per cent of over 1,000 respondents were dissatisfied with the Parades Commission, while 27 per cent were satisfied. It also found a 47 per cent dissatisfaction rating for the Orange Order and a 31 per cent satisfaction rating.)
Mr Graham stressed that of the 3,211 parades in Northern Ireland last year legal conditions were imposed on only 119. Of those, 38 related to parades to or from Drumcree church or were connected with the continuing Drumcree protests.
Mr Graham said it was depressing to see the determination of a small number of people to maintain tension and antagonism within communities while others were working for a resolution. This was contrary to the wishes of the people who voted for the Belfast Agreement.
"There is a changed landscape in Northern Ireland where we now see Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionists and other political parties meeting together to talk about issues affecting Northern Ireland.
So why can't the parties and the local representatives get together to have discussions to try and find a solution?" Mr Graham asked.
Mr Adam Ingram, the North's security minister, said local accommodations were the best way of resolving contentious parades. He appealed to all sides in the Drumcree dispute to "co-operate wholeheartedly and constructively" with the current initiative by Mr Frank Blair, an experienced independent mediator.
