Decision expected four days before planned Drumcree parade

The earliest date for a decision by the Parades Commission on the planned Drumcree march by Portadown Orange Order is 23 September – four days before the scheduled parade.

The route the Order hopes to take - including the mainly-nationalist Garvaghy Road - has been published on Parades Commission website.

It states that on Sunday 27 September the Order intends to start at 13:00 BST on Drumcree Road and finish in Portadown town centre by 14:30.

The commission has posted that the date that the parade is "to be considered" is Wednesday 23 September.

However, it could be later in the week before the decision and the reasons are published.

The contentious part of the route is along the Garvaghy Road, which is in the early part of the planned parade.

The order says that with only 60 members taking part, it should take 15 minutes to pass through that area.

They say they will march in silence with no music.

Once they are beyond the Garvaghy Road and close to the town centre, they say they will be joined by two accordion bands and other members of Portadown Orange Order.

Portadown Orange Order have appealed to residents on the Garvaghy Road to engage in mediation.

They said the Parades Commission had written to them about taking part in a process overseen by an independent mediator.

An order spokesperson said: "We have swiftly confirmed our agreement to participate in talks without precondition."

They called on Sinn Féin and residents to support a talks process.

The spokesperson said: "In our view, the independent chair should be someone with judicial experience, given the issue being considered is at its heart one of human rights law.

"It is welcome this matter is now very much on the table and we stand ready to go into the talks process immediately.

"This is not about the rights of our district prevailing over the rights of those who oppose us, but nor is it sustainable that the rights of those who oppose us can continue to prevail over our rights."

Speaking on Thursday, Breandán Mac Cionnaith, a spokesperson for the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, said, "a number of years ago" the group had put forward a proposal to complete the parade.

He said it would have saw 32 Orangemen parade down the Garvaghy Road "accompanied by 32 young people from this community, each wearing their county GAA tops".

"The Orange Order rejected that outright on the grounds that only a fully paid-up member of the Orange Order could take part in their parades."

Mac Cionnaith said this demonstrated the Orange Order "wants no association with this community, it wants no inclusion by this community, and if anything, it wishes to exclude this community".

He added that the offer was still on the table.