(8 Jul 1998) English/Nat
The stand-off over Sunday's controversial Orange Order march through a hostile Catholic neighbourhood in Portadown remains at an impasse.
Northern Ireland's new Deputy First Minister, Seamus Mallon, was mobbed and heckled by an angry crowd of Catholics on Tuesday night after he emerged from a meeting with locals which failed to resolve the stand off.
Meanwhile, tension remains high in Belfast after a third night of street violence in which hijacked cars were torched.
From the moment he emerged from his private meeting with local Catholic leaders in Portadown, Seamus Mallon, deputy leader of the mainly Catholic and moderate S-D-L-P, was under siege.
Mallon, in the new role of Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister, was mobbed and verbally abused as he tried to push his way through the angry crowd of local Catholic Nationalist residents.
Mallon had met with Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition leader Breandan MacCionnaith to discuss the impasse over the controversial Orange Order parade.
As he was quickly bundled into a car, angry residents shouted "No sell out" and "Go back to Trimble".
Mallon was swiftly driven away in a car with S-D-L-P parades spokesperson Brid Rodgers.
MacCionnaith had earlier emerged to brief the group of about 100 residents.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
"All I'm saying is that we had a very thorough discussion about the current situation. (Member of crowd yells "Is he going to offer us help and assistance?") We looked at a number of different scenarios but as I say it was just a general conversation, a general talk about the current situation and that's all I am prepared to say at this stage.
SUPER CAPTION: Breandan MacCionnaith, Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition
Elsewhere, the trouble was spreading.
Late Tuesday, angry members of the Orange Order paraded illegally through Belfast and blocked roads across Northern Ireland in the hope of forcing British authorities to let
their fellow Protestants march through Portadown's Catholic enclave.
Protestants attacked police and soldiers, ambushed passing drivers and forced them to surrender their cars which were then torched and turned into barricades.
They also burned Catholic properties in predominantly Protestant areas.
Orangemen and supporters formed human barricades across roads in some parts of Belfast and in a dozen mostly Protestant towns.
In some places they only allowed cars through if their drivers could prove they were members of the Orange Order, the 203-year-old fraternal group.
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