N. IRELAND: DRUMCREE STAND-OFF LATEST SITUATION

(11 Jul 1998) Natural Sound Violence flared at Drumcree again on Friday night on the eve of last-minute talks to try to avert more violence. Talks between Protestant marchers and their Catholic opponents were being convened on Saturday, but the two sides will not meet face-to-face. The talks were arranged by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to try to find a durable solution to a march that has sparked violence for a third summer. Orangemen and loyalist protestors again gathered around Drumcree church on Friday night to protest at the Parades Commission's decision to ban the Drumcree march down the Garvaghy Road. Protestors lined a ditch in front of barbed-wire, in a face off with riot police and troops. Police fired plastic bullets as protestors tried to break through barricades around the Drumcree church. The renewed violence came just after a last-ditch initiative to break the deadlock. After six nights of violence and displays of force, representatives of the Orange Order and the Catholic residents of the Garvaghy Road agreed on Friday to attend talks. The talks were arranged by British Prime Minister Tony Blair to try to end the deadlock over the Protestant Orange Order's blocked march along the mainly Catholic Garvaghy Road in Portadown. The Orangemen and their Catholic opponents won't meet directly, but will relay proposals through intermediaries. But similar initiatives have failed in the past two years and both sides are cautious about the prospects of Friday's suggested talks. The Orange Order has refused to have any direct contact with the residents group, because Breandan MacCionnaith, leader of the residents group, is a former Irish Republican Army prisoner. Indirect talks were attempted in 1996 and 1997, but both times they failed to resolve the conflict over Protestants marching down the Garvaghy Road. In 1996, police and soldiers stopped the march but backed down after four nights of Protestant violence across Northern Ireland. Last year, police clubbed protestors off the road to let the Orangemen through. This year, Blair said he would enforce the decision of the new Parades Commission that the Orangemen could not go down the Garvaghy Road. The only way that part of the march could proceed, Blair said, was through an agreement between marchers and residents. Tensions are likely to peak this weekend with the July 12th holiday; the annual Protestant celebration of the defeat of Catholic King James II by King William of Orange at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...