Meet Paddy Paradesdown and team

By Vincent Kearney
BBC NI home affairs correspondent

An independent review has recommended a new way to deal with contentious parades.

The review team chaired by the former Liberal Democrat leader Lord Ashdown would give the final say to a panel appointed by the first and deputy first ministers.

Parades have been one of the most contentious issues on the Northern Ireland political agenda for many years.

They've sparked riots and protests, claims of discrimination and denial of rights, and some believe they have the potential to destabilise the Stormont Assembly.

Catholic residents have opposed some Orange marches

Lord Ashdown, the former Liberal Democrat leader and Royal Marine, and the six other members of his Strategic Review of Parading body could have been forgiven for thinking they'd been passed a poison chalice.

But, after a year of consultation and discussion, they believe they've found an antidote.

Their interim report speaks of "a unique opportunity to establish new procedures and structures, based on the principles of respect and tolerance".

Local dialogue is the cornerstone of the process. The aim is to encourage parade organisers and objectors to sit down face to face to work out their differences.

Under the proposed new system, the Office of First and Deputy First Minister will be at the heart of the process.

The ministers will be responsible for appointing panels of mediators to try to resolve disputes, adjudicators to make decisions if no agreement can be reached, and monitors to ensure that new standards of conduct or observed by those on parade and any protestors.

How the new system will work

If implemented, the new system would spell the end for the Parades Commission, set up in 1997 to resolve disputes over contentious parades.

The new process will apply to all public assemblies of 15 people or more, but the focus will be on those held by the Orange Order.

There are almost 4,000 Orange Order parades in Northern Ireland every year and the vast majority are non-contentious, but some like Drumcree and the Ormeau Road in Belfast are highly controversial and in those cases the commission makes the final decision.

Difficult nut

Lord Ashdown is at pains to point out that this is an interim report, what he calls "an invitation to further discussions", but it's clear that he believes his team is very close to cracking what has been a very difficult nut.

The buzz-phrase is "community buy-in" and he believes that has been achieved because of the consensus reached by the widely divergent members of his team. The key figures are seen as Mervyn Gibson and Sean "Spike" Murray.

Former Royal Marine Lord Ashdown will chair the review team

Gibson is a former RUC officer and ex-chairman of the Loyalist Commission who has been a lifelong member of the Orange Institution and is currently a Deputy Grand Chaplain of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland. Murray is a former IRA prisoner and chairman of two nationalist residents' groups.

Shortly after taking up his role last year, Lord Ashdown remarked that the key was to find agreement between these two individuals, and he appears to have succeeded.

Mervyn Gibson speaks of the need to remove the issue of parades "as an alternative battlefield to 30 years of violence", while Sean Murray says agreement is essential to avoid possible conflict that could destabilise the fledgling devolved assembly. Both men are agreed on the need for a new approach.

Bigger picture

The report makes it clear that the review team sees the resolution of parading disputes is linked to the bigger political picture, stating that it can "best be achieved within the wider context of the transfer of policing and justice."

Initially, the omens appeared good when some of the details of the report emerged last week, with the Orange Order indicating its support for the proposals.

The order refuses to deal with the Parades Commission and has spent much of the past 10 years calling for it to be abolished.

Mr Gibson and Sean "Spike" Murray are seen as key players

Support for this new process would spell the end for the commission, but also commit the order to direct talks with nationalist residents groups.

But the SDLP immediately made it clear that it is far from happy, describing some of the proposals as "madness" and questioning the wisdom of giving local councils any role in the process, saying the political allegiances of councillors would result in political interference and a lack of independence.

The party isn't alone. The review team admits that it has not yet been able to reach agreement on what it calls the "legacy parades" at Drumcree and on Belfast's Ormeau Road, where violent disputes resulted in the creation of the parades commission.

These are the most contentious parades and the fact that agreement hasn't been reached on how to deal with them is a major weakness in the report.

The review team say they will have further discussions and will make recommendations about these parades in their final report, which is due to be delivered to the Secretary of State in October. But the omens for agreement on that issue appear far from good.

King William has been an Orange icon for more than 300 years

Residents' response

Nationalist residents' groups in the area have issued a joint statement criticising the report, which they describe as "unnecessary and largely unhelpful".

They say the fact that the First and Deputy First Ministers would have a key role in the process "will politicise rather than depoliticise the marching issue".

Lord Ashdown's team say they believe the new process could be in place for the marching season next year, if the political will is there. But finding agreement on the Garvaghy and Ormeau roads could prove much more difficult than in the corridors of Stormont.