DRUMCREE and the British-Irish compromise proposals on decommissioning are expected to be top of the agenda when the Taoiseach and senior Government Ministers separately meet the Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, in Belfast today.
Mr Ahern, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Burke, and the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, travel to Belfast today at a time of growing tension over Sunday's Orange parade at Drumcree. The incoming Progressive Democrat Minister of State, Ms Liz O'Donnell, is also expected to join the two Ministers at the Stormont multi-party talks.
While there is much behind-the-scenes activity involving Dr Mowlam and the main players to the Drumcree dispute, there is still no sign of any breakthrough.
In the coming days, the RUC Chief Constable, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, must decide whether to re-route Sunday's parade away from Garvaghy Road, thus arousing the ire of many unionists and loyalists, or of allowing the parade and provoking a similar response from nationalists and republicans.
Mr Flanagan's decision was expected tomorrow although it may be delayed until Thursday or Friday. Should there be a "last minute" proposal that could resolve the dispute, or at least defuse current anxieties, his decision could be further postponed to Saturday, according to a senior RUC source.
Meanwhile, Dr Mowlam is continuing her efforts to a find a compromise on Drumcree acceptable to both the Orange Order and the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition. She is expected to brief the Taoiseach on the results of her efforts when they meet in Belfast this morning. Mr Ahern is travelling to Belfast to address the biennial conference of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
Mr Ahern is due to meet representatives of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition in Dublin this afternoon. Drumcree is also likely to be on the agenda when the multi-party talks resume at Stormont this afternoon.
Mr Burke, Mr O'Donoghue and Ms O'Donnell may also meet the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr
David Trimble, at the talks.
The RUC in Derry has appealed for community restraint and "responsibility" in the coming weeks of the marching season. The appeal was issued by Supt Joe McKeever amid concern that Derry could become a violent flashpoint should Orangemen be allowed to march down Garvaghy Road. Serious trouble flared in Derry after last year's parade was allowed. One man was killed and several people were injured.
Derry will stage one of the main Twelfth of July parades on Saturday week, and local nationalists have applied for permission to hold counter demonstrations adding to the potential for trouble.
In London yesterday, the UUP deputy leader, Mr John Taylor, accused Sinn Fein and the IRA of deliberately fomenting sectarianism and bigotry during the height of the marching season.
"If there is violence I hope observers will recognise that it has been caused as a result of intolerance by extremist republicans who have renounced peaceful demonstrations, and instead decided to block a main road so that it cannot be used by their Protestant neighbours. Many Roman Catholics are ashamed of the intolerance of these extremist republicans," he told US students attending a summer school.
Meanwhile, a group of Americans, including leading financiers and police officers, met the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, and Mr Jeffrey Dondalson MP, of the UUP, in the North yesterday.
Mr Alan Hevesi, the New York Comptroller, said the group was in the North to try to persuade all sides to reach agreement and to "back away from violence".
