Orangemen in delegation for parades commission meeting

A key Portadown Orangeman is today due to have talks with the Parades Commission, which has again banned the Drumcree parade from the nationalist Garvaghy Road.

Portadown lodge spokesman David Jones insisted that he was going to the meeting as a local councillor, and not as an Orangeman.

He is a member of a delegation selected by Craigavon District Council to meet the commission to discuss the parade.

Mr Jones branded the commission ‘‘unrepresentative and unaccountable’’.

But he said: ‘‘Whether we like it or not, the Parades Commission does exist. We have to recognise it because we can’t get off Drumcree Hill.’’

Mr Jones was elected for the first time as an independent councillor at the local elections last month.

He and three other unionist councillors will try to get the commission to overturn last night’s decision to ban next Sunday’s parade from the Garvaghy Road for the fourth consecutive year.

The SDLP’s Brid Rodgers, Agriculture Minister at Stormont and an Assembly member for the Portadown area, said the commission had made the only possible decision in view of the Orange Order’s refusal to meet it or engage in dialogue with the Garvaghy residents.

She too was preparing to meet the commission, to ensure that it stood by the decision.

The ruling was not a victory for nationalism, she said, adding: ‘‘Nationalists as well as unionists in Portadown are sick to death of this yearly saga of Drumcree and they all want it resolved.

‘‘The only way it can be resolved is through dialogue and agreement.’’

Meanwhile the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland says it will carefully consider its options following the latest ruling.

Executive officer George Patten said it was disappointed by the decision but appealed for calm.

‘‘It is a matter of great and deep regret that there are those who feel that the Orange culture can be treated with such so off-handedly,’’ he said.

‘‘We will consider what is appropriate in the light of the circumstances as they exist internally and within the wider community.’’