Irish grant for Apprentice Boys

Protestant parades mark the Maiden City Festival

The Irish government is to give £30,000 to the Maiden City Festival which is organised annually by the Apprentice Boys of Derry.

The announcement was made after a delegation from the Protestant loyal order met Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Brian Cowen in Dublin.

Mr Cowen held talks with Apprentice Boys Governor Alastair Simpson and the organisation's general secretary Billy Moore.

He welcomed the visit, which he said was the Apprentice Boys's first official trip to Dublin.

Brian Cowen welcomed new contacts with Apprentice Boys

He added: "The visit gave me a better understanding of the cultural heritage of the apprentice boys.

"I am pleased to announce that I have decided to make a £30,000 towards this years Maiden City Festival."

Annual parades by the Apprentice Boys of Derry have been controversial in the past, both in Londonderry and on Belfast's Ormeau Road.

While residents continue to oppose the parades in the lower Ormeau area of Belfast, the Apprentice Boys have reached agreement with local nationalist residents on their most recent Derry parades.

During their annual August festival in Derry, the Apprentice Boys have held events including a re-enactment of the historic Siege of Derry.

The festival commemorates the actions of Protestant Apprentice Boys who shut the city gates against the forces of the Catholic King James in December 1688.

King James laid siege to the city from December to August 1689 until the Protestant forces of King William of Orange relieved the city.