Talks may resolve Drumcree stand-off
As the tension drained from Northern Ireland's most controversial parade, attention switched to an initiative aimed at brokering a final settlement.
British PM Tony Blair's chief of staff Jonathan Powell, leading church and businessmen are all involved in efforts to break the impasse over the Orange Order's demand to walk down the nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown, Co Armagh.
The Order is prepared to end its ban on direct talks with representatives of the Catholic residents in return for being allowed to march the flashpoint route.
All future parades would then have to be agreed at a civil forum set up in the town to address both communities' concerns.
Nationalists have so far refused to sign up to the deal, claiming they are being asked to take too big a leap of faith.
But David Jones, spokesman for the Portadown Orangemen said: "If people are prepared to work on it and deal with this there's no reason why we can't have a parade next Sunday or the following Sunday.
"If this moves as it should, then we wouldn't have a big difficulty around Drumcree next year or future years. But it's all up to the residents to come back and give us their response."
For the sixth year running a steel barrier blocked the Orangemen from the Garvaghy Road as they emerged from a service at Drumcree parish church.
Heavy security was present with police and army prepared for any repeat of clashes that have erupted in previous years, often provoking violence across Northern Ireland.
But it soon became clear there was no appetite for trouble among the 700 marchers or the few hundred supporters who joined them.
With district master Harold Gracey too ill to walk, secretary Nigel Dawson handed in a letter of protest to police chiefs at the metal gates and said: "I would ask you to remove this hideous barrier and your men."
Then the Orangemen returned to the church and heard deputy district master David Burrows give a short address hitting out at the Parade's Commission which ruled against the march and vowing that one day Orangemen would set foot on the Garvaghy Road.
Within an hour nearly everyone had left the area.
However, despite the Orangemen's claims that they were prepared to adopt a fresh strategy, Breandan Mac Cionnaith, spokesman for the Garvaghy Road residents insisted there was nothing new in the proposals.
