Portadown Orangemen will not accept any deal at Drumcree that falls short of a full march down the Garvaghy Road, Jamie Bryson has told supporters – pouring cold water on suggestions that a compromise may be close.
Speaking at a Drumcree family event in the Edgarstown estate in Portadown on Wednesday night, Mr Bryson, who is acting as legal adviser to Portadown District LOL No 1, insisted there was “no document on the table” and “no deal” being done.
“What is absolutely not true, is the Portadown District are not doing any deal,” he told the crowd.
“There’s no document on the table, and the Portadown District will not be doing any deal which doesn’t deliver on the fundamental legal principle, and the fundamental legal principle is this: that the Portadown District will walk the Garvaghy Road and nothing else will do.”
He said the District would honour its commitment not to give a “running commentary” on confidential talks with Secretary of State Sir Chris Bryant at Hillsborough Castle, but stressed there would be no climbdown on what he termed a core issue of principle.
“We are going to respect the integrity of the process with the Secretary of State. We give a commitment that we would not come out and brief the media, and we haven’t. And we are going to stick to that. We’re not going to come out. We’re not going to give a running commentary,” he said.
“But I promise everybody here tonight, and I have the authority of the District Master, who’s asked me to tell you as well. The Portadown District will not surrender the fundamental principle. Not now. Not last week. Not next week. Not ever!”
Related: Garvaghy residents say they’ll back Secretary of State’s Drumcree deal ‘if Orange Order accepts it’
His comments come just hours after Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition spokesman Breandán Mac Cionnaith suggested outside Hillsborough that residents would accept a proposal put forward by the Secretary of State if the Orange Order did likewise.
“We’ve received the document from the Secretary of State and gone through it this afternoon,” Mr Mac Cionnaith said earlier.
“Obviously I can’t divulge what’s in it but let’s say if it’s accepted by the Orange Order, it’ll be accepted by us I would say.”
Sir Chris has described a potential resolution as “tantalisingly close” but repeatedly warned that a deal is not guaranteed, urging all sides – and the wider community – to “search deep in their souls for another chunk of compromise”.
Talks involving the Orange Order, Garvaghy Road residents, the PSNI and the Secretary of State are expected to continue.
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