SINN FEIN has denied manipulating the parades issue following claims that Mr Gerry Adams had admitted that the party was behind some nationalist resident groups protests against Orange Order parades.
Last night's RTE Prime Time programme alleged that Mr Adams told a private republican conference last November in Athboy, Co Meath, that the party was behind the protests on the Garvaghy Road, Portadown, the Lower Ormeau Road, Belfast, and other areas.
The Prime Time reporter, Justin O'Brien, said that the programme had a transcript of a speech made by Mr Adams in Athboy.
Mr O'Brien said that a crucial part of Mr Adams's speech read: "Ask any activist in the North did Drumcree happen by accident, and they will tell you `no' three years of work on the Lower Ormeau Road, Portadown, and parts of Fermanagh and Newry, Armagh, and Bellaghy, and up in Derry.
Mr Adams's alleged comments continued: "Three years' work went into creating that situation, and fair play to those people who put the work in." According to Mr O'Brien, the Sinn Fein president concluded: "And they are the type of scene changes that we have to focus in on, and develop, and exploit."
Sinn Fein, however, rejected the claim and queried the accuracy of the transcript. Mr Gerry O hEara, the party's Northern chairman, said that Prime Time's interpretation of the purported comments was "ludicrous". It was an insult to the work of the residents' groups, some of which had been opposing Orange parades through national 1st areas for over 20 years, to suggest that they were being manipulated by Sinn Fein.
Mr Gerard Rice, of the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community, - also denied that Sinn Fein was controlling the protests.
Mr Robert Saulters, Grand Master of the Orange Order, said the order's perception always had been that Sinn Fein was behind the protests.
