NORTHERN Ireland Parades Commission chief Roger Poole and its Protestant members yesterday faced calls for them to stand down after Orangemen were banned from marching down a nationalist area.

A member of the North's Parades Commission whose membership of the Orange Order sparked a legal action has stepped down from the organisation.

The Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments is to receive an official complaint about an Orangeman serving on Northern Ireland’s Parades Commission, it emerged today.

The British government was tonight facing demands from nationalist politicians in Northern Ireland for further explanation about its appointment practices for members of the Parades Commission.

SINN FÉIN is accused of trying to rewrite history with the recreation of a famous Catholic civil rights march in the North.

The Parades Commission is due to issue its ruling on the contentious Drumcree march later today.

Nationalist residents in Portadown have reportedly refused to meet the local Orange Order to discuss this year's contentious Drumcree parade.

A review of the North's Parades Commission has recommended that the body be split into two organisations, one to mediate between marchers and protestors and the other to rule on disputed parades.

The Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition is proposing a tightening-up of the law governing Orange parades.

The South African mediator who has been trying without success to resolve the long-running Drumcree Orange Order parade dispute announced he was quitting tonight.

The man chosen to head a review into the Parades Commission insisted today it would not be restricted by political constraints.

Loyalist marchers blocked from walking through a nationalist area in Northern Ireland today threatened legal action after accusing the RUC of double standards.

The Northern Ireland Secretary says the eyes of the world will be on the Province in the run-up to the annual Drumcree Parade.

The Northern Ireland Parades Commission was due to announce today if it will overturn a ban on an Orange Order march through a nationalist area of Portadown.