The third round of talks involving the First Minister Designate, Mr David Trimble, and elected representatives from the Portadown area yesterday ended without any significant breakthrough on the Drumcree parade issue.
Hopes of progress on Drumcree were dashed before the talks actually got under way. On arriving at the Craigavon Civic Centre, the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition spokesman, Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, told waiting reporters that there would be no solution to Drumcree which involved an Orange parade on the Garvaghy Road this year.
The meeting lasted just over three hours and involved representatives of Sinn Fein, SDLP, Ulster Unionists and the Garvaghy Road group. Mr Trimble left the meeting shortly before 5 p.m. to travel to London. Despite the apparent setback, the SDLP Assembly member for Upper Bann, Ms Brid Rodgers, described the mood of the talks as "businesslike and professional".
Ms Rodgers said that the group had agreed to meet again next week "to look at all the issues that are symptomatic of the problems of Portadown". She refused to comment on Mr Mac Cionnaith's remarks.
Referring later to his comments, Mr Mac Cionnaith said he was "reiterating the views of the community that I represent". He said those views had been stated at a public meeting of the coalition on Sunday. He refused to be drawn on the detailed content of that meeting. He also criticised recent media speculation that a "deal on Drumcree" was in the offing, describing it as unhelpful.
The Sinn Fein Assembly member, Dr Dara O'Hagan, said her party was "100 per cent in support of whatever decisions the Garvaghy Road residents make". She said she believed that the meetings should continue, "but it is only the beginning of the process and people would need to bear that in mind".
A group of loyalist protesters gathered outside the talks venue said Mr Mac Cionnaith's comments were "nothing more that what was expected of him". One said: "The simple truth of the matter is, and we have said it all along, the nationalists on the Garvaghy Road want everything Protestant removed from the area. Today we have seen Mac Cionnaith in his true sectarian colours."