Hopes for Drumcree deal fade

New efforts to end the tense Orange Order stand-off at Drumcree are doomed to failure, it has been claimed.

After petrol bomb attacks by loyalists on police in Portadown, Co Armagh, security sources dismissed the Orange Order’s decision to resume mediation, declaring: ‘‘It’s a dead duck’’.

Meetings with South African mediator Brian Currin had raised hopes a resolution to the bitterly disputed parade could yet be brokered.

Mr Currin has urged Portadown Orangemen barred from marching down the nationalist Garvaghy Road after their annual Battle of the Somme church service, to forge a compromise with residents.

But as police prepared plans to combat violence linked to the July parade, sources tonight remained sceptical about the chances of a successful outcome.

‘‘The fact that Currin is going public means that it’s a dead duck,’’ one said.

‘‘Orangemen are trying to be seen to go along with this but they are not helpful. He’s trying to bring the greatest weight of pressure on them but it’s a forlorn hope.’’

Although police do not have any special contingency plans for this year’s Drumcree parade on July 8, officers were preparing for serious disturbances.

‘‘We plan for the worst and hope for the best,’’ the security source said.