The North's First Minister has appealed to Orangemen and their supporters not to engage in any violence over the coming days. David Trimble said that he believed the Orange Order should go and see the Parades Commission. Mr Trimble said that, in the right context, the Order should be prepared to engage in a direct process with the residents of the Garvaghy Road.
A Loyalist band parade into the centre of Lurgan passed off peacefully this evening, after a major security operation by police and British troops. The march's route stopped short of William Street, where last week there were disturbances between Nationalists and the security forces over a Loyalist parade.
The Garvaghy Road Residents' spokesman Councillor Breandan MacCionnaith has been released by the RUC after being arrested this morning. He was released after spending over two hours in detention at Lurgan RUC station. He will face four charges later this month including assault and disorderly behaviour. However, Mr McCionnaith said that he had been trying to calm the situation in Portadown, after reports of a number of nationalist youths being arrested during a disturbance this morning as loyalists put up an orange arch at the town end of the road.
A solicitor for the Garvaghy Residents' Coalition claimed later that the charges were malicious. She also alleged that some security force members had acted in an intimidating manner while she was inside Lurgan police station along with a Sinn Féin Assembly member and an observer. The RUC said that, if a complaint were made, it would be investigated.
At the church this afternoon, an international peace group held a prayer service. They were led by a former New York policeman, Steven McDonald, who was shot and is now paralysed. Security forces have made contingency plans for dealing with the Drumcree parades but the Chief Constable has said that they do not intend to erect a physical barricade near the church tomorrow.
