A PROPOSED deal to resolve the Drumcree parading dispute is “not acceptable”, a DUP MP has said.
Carla Lockhart’s assessment came after a representative of the Garvaghy Road residents said they would accept a document setting out a resolution if the Orange Order also did so.
Resident spokesman Breandán Mac Cionnaith was speaking following a meeting with Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant at Hillsborough Castle.
Bryant has been trying to strike a compromise deal between the two sides of the stand-off.
Mac Cionnaith said: “Obviously I can’t divulge what is in it but if it’s accepted by the Orange Order, it will be accepted by us”.
Portadown Orange Order district master Nigel Dawson declined to comment on the paper as he left the castle on Wednesday evening.
However, Lockhart, who spoke at a loyalist rally in Portadown in support of the Orangemen later in the evening, voiced opposition to the proposal.
The Upper Bann MP told press: “I can assure you, you’ll hear more from the Orange Order – but what’s on the table is not acceptable.”
She later added: “There’ll be no capitulation on the part of the Portadown district.
“They will not accept a deal where they walk away.”
Loyalist Jamie Bryson, who is legal adviser to the Portadown Orangemen, also pushed back on suggestions an agreement between the two sides was close, insisting the loyal order members are “not doing any deal”.
“We have been engaged in a talks process with the Secretary of State and the Government, that is true,” he told the same rally.
“What is absolutely not true is the Portadown District are not doing any deal, there is no document on the table.
“And Portadown District would not be doing any deal which doesn’t deliver on the fundamental legal principle and the fundamental legal principle is this – that the Portadown District will walk the Garvaghy Road.”
Leaving Hillsborough on Wednesday afternoon, Bryant suggested a deal was “tantalisingly close”, but he also warned he was not sure whether it will be possible.
The Drumcree parading dispute, which was associated with violent disorder during the Troubles, has been reignited after the Parades Commission adjudication body granted permission for a limited Orange Order march down the Garvaghy Road for the first time in almost 30 years.
It was supposed to take place at 8am on Sunday morning but loyal order members were halted by police after more than 1000 people gathered on the Garvaghy Road to block the route.
Orangemen have been waiting since Sunday to conduct the parade. They have tried on several occasions to start the procession, but have been prevented by police each time.
Earlier, Northern Ireland’s police chief warned that “mob rule” must not be allowed to win as he stressed the need to find a peaceful resolution to the parade stand-off, which is in its fourth day.
Jon Boutcher said he would continue to seek a way to facilitate the Orange Order march down the predominantly nationalist Garvaghy Road but he made clear he is not prepared to do it at any cost, highlighting his overriding responsibility is keeping people safe.
It came as Northern Ireland’s first minister Michelle O’Neill returned to the Garvaghy Road to give further support to protesters.
The Sinn Féin vice president has defended her attendance at a large protest on Sunday which police have described as unlawful, stating “there are times in life you have to do the right thing”.
After hosting a third day of meetings at Hillsborough, Bryant said they had not reached the end of the process yet.
“I’m not sure whether it’s possible and I would just appeal to everybody, including the wider community, not just the people I have been meeting in the room, that people are going to have to search deep in their souls for another chunk of compromise if we’re going to get to a successful long-term resolution of the situation,” he said.
“I personally – and everybody in my team – is personally working flat-out to try and get to a successful resolution, and I think that is tantalisingly close if everybody can just go that extra mile.”
Meanwhile, Boutcher also confirmed there is a large-scale criminal investigation under way into a mass unlawful protest that blocked the Garvaghy Road on Sunday in an attempt to prevent the parade going ahead.
