Two senior Orange Order members have warned that protests in support of Drumcree are damaging the order.
They urged the leadership of the loyal institution to "rethink" its current strategy of widespread disruption. The West Tyrone Ulster Unionist Party MP, Mr William Thompson, and a Belfast UUP councillor, Mr Jim Rodgers, said the violence attending the Drumcree protests was proving counterproductive.
Their views reflected a growing body of opinion among moderate or middle-class unionists and some Orange Order members, who are appalled at the escalating violence and disturbances, sometimes involving loyalist paramilitaries.
As the 11th Night bonfires were lit in Belfast, Portadown and other loyalist areas of the North and ahead of the Twelfth parades that will attract tens of thousands to 18 parades today, Mr Thompson said it was time for Orangemen to "use our heads rather than our hearts".
It was time to call off the protests, he added. "All of this is detracting from our cause, it's weakening the Orange Order, and it's beginning to lose the support of decent people, including many Orangemen. I think we're going to have to change our tack," Mr Thompson said. Mr Rodgers, who is to deliver the main speech to an estimated 20,000 Orangemen and supporters in Ormeau Park, Belfast, this afternoon rejected the stance of the Grand Orange Lodge that it was powerless to compel the Portadown district to alter its strategy of widespread disruption.
Mr Rodgers said it was up to the Grand Lodge in Belfast to dictate policy.
"These protests have been hijacked in many areas. We need to rethink our strategy. Eighty-five per cent of protests have been peaceful, but others are being taken over by undesirables who are giving the order a bad name," he added.
The Co Armagh Grand Lodge yesterday called for a massive and peaceful turnout today in support of the Drumcree stand.
Orange members and their loyalist supporters again caused traffic chaos throughout the North by staging lightning protests in Belfast, Portadown, Coleraine, Bally money, the Waterside area of Derry, Lisburn and other towns and villages.
Again many businesses pre-empted the disruption by closing and sending staff home early.
While the disruption is widespread the numbers involved in closing roads is relatively small. The RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, in television interviews described as "absolute rubbish" a claim by the Sinn Fein Minister of Education, Mr Martin McGuinness, that the RUC would act with greater force if nationalists or Catholics were involved in the protests. "We have been behaving in a way that is appropriate to the circumstances, and it matters not to us whether the people involved in protest or disorder are of a nationalist disposition or of a so-called loyalist disposition," the Chief Constable said.
He predicted that the disruption and violence would not continue for much longer.
The Portadown District spokesman, Mr David Jones, criticised the three SDLP ministers, Ms Brid Rodgers, Mr Sean Farren and Mr Mark Durkan, for instructing that the Union flag not fly over their departments today, a designated day for hoisting the flag in Northern Ireland.
Hitherto in the interests of community "sensitivity" the SDLP has allowed the Union flag fly on other designated days.
However, the Minister of Finance, Mr Durkan, said it would be "indefensible" to fly the flag today because "the Twelfth is a partisan if not downright sectarian occasion". Mr Jones said: "We would have hoped in the new dispensation the SDLP would recognise the other community, but that does not seem to be the case."
The Portadown District is not organising any protests today in order to allow the Twelfth parades proceed as normal.
Mr Jones said "people will have to wait and see" whether the Orangemen would maintain or attempt to escalate their protests thereafter.
He added that he "noted" the comments of Mr Thompson and Mr Rodgers. "They are entitled to their opinions," he said.
