Apprentice Boys offered alternative to parade ban

The Parades Commission in the North is believed to have offered the Apprentice Boys an alternative to the total ban on their contentious parade in a nationalist area of Belfast tomorrow.

The commission has already ruled that the march cannot proceed past the Ardoyne area.

However, during a meeting with the loyalist Parades Forum yesterday, the body is believed to have offered to allow the Apprentice Boys to be bussed along the contentious part of the route. Sinn Féin and the SDLP are believed to have no objection to such a move.

Meanwhile, the SDLP has warned the PSNI not to allow the Apprentice Boys to circumvent the ban on their Ardoyne march.

The ban is only legally binding on the formal parade, but the Apprentice Boys were apparently considering falling out of formation and walking along the contentious route as individual pedestrians.

Local SDLP councillor Martin Morgan said the PSNI must not allow any such “ruse” to succeed or they would find themselves in conflict with his party. The SDLP has already expressed anger at the police for allowing a banned Orange Order parade through the Ardoyne area on July 12 on public order grounds.