THE Orange Order in Northern Ireland failed yesterday in its bid to be allowed to march tomorrow along the Garvaghy Road, a nationalist area of Portadown.
The Parades Commission upheld its earlier ruling forbidding the march during the annual Drumcree parade.
In a statement, the Commission referred to the affidavit by the Portadown Orangemen, and a meeting with the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition. It said it had been encouraged by both.
However, in a reference to the street violence across Northern Ireland over the past five days since Monday's decision to ban the parade, the Commission said ''peaceful protest is not necessarily the same as lawful protest''.
It warned of the difficulty both sides have of controlling ''hooli-gan elements who own little allegiance to the principles or issues involved''. As the ruling was handed down, police reported that a bus had been hijacked and set on fire and a car seized on the Ligoneil Road in north Belfast. But it was the only early evening incident.
The calm was believed to be in response to Orange leaders' calls for no protest as a mark of respect to motorcycle racer Joey Dunlop, a hero in Northern Ireland, whose funeral was attended by about 50,000 mourners at Ballymoney, County Antrim.
Before the decision, Portadown District Master Harold Gracey refused to condemn loyalist violence in the wake of the original ban. Mr Gracey told the BBC at Drumcree: ''I am not going to condemn violence because (Sinn Fein leader) Gerry Adams never condemns it.''
He said he was not saying he was happy with violence, but ''the Protestant people of this country and the loyalist community are sick to death of what is happening to this country and have been over the past 30 years''.
SDLP Minister in the Stormont executive, Brid Rodgers, said Mr Gracey's refusal to condemn the violence would be deplored by unionists and nationalists across the province. The spokesman for
the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition, Breandan MacCionnaith, said the onus was on the Orange Order, but added he was ''disappointed at the reaction of Harold Gracey on the BBC today. The question begs in the light of those comments: Who speaks for the Orange Order? Is it Harold Gracey or the mediators on their behalf.''
He said some Orange leaders, Unionist leader David Trimble and the Protestant Church had distanced themselves from the violence. ''Surely the time has come for Harold Gracey to take a stand against such violence.''
The decision to uphold the ban was condemned by Democratic Unionist Paul Berry. The Newry and Armagh MLA called for ''people power'' to secure a march on the Garvaghy Road for the Portadown District.
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson urged the Portadown Orangemen not to break off dialogue. He said that ''now is not the time to stop talking but the time to keep talking, and I hope that all sides will do so''.
As the extent of the violence surrounding the Drumcree Orange Order protest was revealed by the RUC, with 37 officers and two soldiers injured in the street violence during 145 attacks on the security forces, including 12 gun attacks over five nights of trouble, five men were shot in the legs in paramilitary-style ''punishment'' attacks on the outskirts of north Belfast.
All were last night being treated in hospital, where their injuries were not thought to be life-threatening.
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