(by Anne Cadwallader, Ireland on Sunday)

The Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition says moves to replace the present mediator over Drumcree, South African civil rights lawyer, Brian Currin, with the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh are "totally unacceptable".

It’s understood the Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, who’s also the MP for Portadown, has the approval of leading members of the Orange Order in involved in the Drumcree conflict, and is lobbying for a high-profile role for Dr. Robin Eames in future negotiations.

It’s understood the Archbishop has indicated his willingness to become a mediator between the Orangemen and the nationalist residents. They, however, will not accept Dr. Eames as a neutral mediator between the two sides.

Behind scenes moves are understood to have begun as long ago as last year to undermine Mr. Currin’s role as the Orange Order has become increasingly disillusioned with his chairmanship.

Last week, the Orange Order in Portadown put forward a so-called "compromise" proposal, one of whose authors, it’s understood, was the Archbishop. The proposal did not find favour with the Parades Commission, however.

It proposed that a civic forum, including the Garvaghy Road spokesman, Breandan Mac Cionnaith, would have met yesterday and an Orange march would have taken place today.

Two senior Ulster Unionist ministers, Sir Reg Empey and Michael McGimpsey, met the Commission to lobby for the plan, accompanied by a member of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland and its "Drumcree Strategy Committee", David McNarry, who – they said – was present in his capacity as a "ministerial adviser".

Dr. Eames was also the "third party", under whose chairmanship the Portadown District Lodge had recently proposed to meet the chairman of the Parades Commission, Tony Holland.

The secretary of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, Denis Watson criticised Mr Holland for declining to attend due to the "secretive nature" of the meeting.

That abortive attempt to undermine Mr. Currin’s role was not the first time that such an intervention has been mounted. In November last year, Mr. Currin issued a thinly-veiled criticism of such interventions.

He said that a "common characteristic" of such moves is that they emerge from one side of the equation and only that party is consulted. "The result is that hidden agendas are suspected by the other tradition", said Currin.

"My experience of these interventions, irrespective of how well intentioned they may be, is that they tend to undermine what little progress is being made".

This is not the first time, either, that the Order has tried to remove a mediator from the Drumcree imbroglio. When Frank Blair, the eminent Scottish trade union mediator with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service, was trying to broker a deal, he was also criticised by the Orangemen.

In June 1999, the Portadown Orange Lodge openly criticised Blair’s role as independent facilitator, claiming he had treated its delegation unfairly. Mr. Blair had only a very limited success in his role subsequently.

In a statement issued after a church service at Drumcree, the Portadown district said Mr Blair had a "complete inability to facilitate and a lack of understanding of the Orange delegation". Mr Blair was also accused of a "complete bias" against the Orange position at Drumcree.

This article first appeared in Ireland on Sunday's July 8 edition..

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