Ulster '97: Efforts to defuse confrontation

Drumcree Church Minister Appeals for Calm

"I'm appealing to everyone to be calm and quiet and I'm asking people to pray for a peaceful outcome," said the Reverend John Pickering. He spoke of a great deal of anxiety in the local community.

Earlier the Reverend Martin Smyth, Ulster Unionist MP for South Belfast and a former head of the Orange Order, said he was confident the better nature of the Ulster people would prevail and "prophecies of doom will not be realised".

The comments came after the Northern Ireland Secretary, Mo Mowlam, implored Orangemen and nationalists to pull back from the brink before the summer marching season plunges Ulster into violence.

Talks aimed at solving the differences between the two sides in the run-up to the Orange parade at Drumcree next Sunday ended with no result.

Writing in the Northern Irish Sunday paper Sunday Life, Dr. Mowlam called upon both sides to get together and find a solution. She said there was "no shame in compromise", and urged both sides to consider the consequences of their actions for people everywhere in Northern Ireland.

An Orange parade on Sunday afternoon to commemorate the Ulster troops who died in the Battle of the Somme was prevented by police from marching through a Nationalist area of Belfast. The marchers turned back peacefully after holding a religous service.

Ulster '96: ... fears of a return to last year's violence

Dr Mowlam's plea comes just seven days before the critical Drumcree parade in Portadown, and follows the failure of Friday's 'proximity' talks, when she tried to broker a deal between both sides. More meetings are planned this week in a final attempt to broker a deal between nationalist residents and Portadown Orangemen.

If the talks fail, the government and the RUC have an unenviable choice: to ban the march, provoking the Orangemen, or to allow it to go ahead, antagonising the nationalists.

So far, orange parades have ended peacefully after stand-offs between the police and the marchers, and nationalist residents blocking the marchers' route.

Last year, much of the province was paralysed after police attempts to stop the Drumcree march. Loyalists barricaded roads, ports and airports across Northern Ireland.