Orange Order rejects calls to talk with Garvaghy residents

The Orange Order in Portadown has rejected suggestions that it should follow another order's lead and talk to residents' groups over the Drumcree march.

The Royal Black Preceptory, a higher level in the Orange Order, has come to an agreement with Bogside residents in Derry whereby residents will not oppose the Preceptory's march in the city at the end of August.

William Hay, a DUP member of the Preceptory and the Orange Order, said it was not a case of compromising their principles.

However, Grand Secretary of the Grand Orange Lodge in Armagh, Denis Watson, said they were willing to talk to what he called "ordinary nationalist residents".

They would not discuss anything with what he described as "a front group for Sinn/Fein IRA", he said.