WikiLeaks: Orange Order had secret Sinn Fein meetings
Some Orange Order lodges were privately meeting with Sinn Fein over parades as far back as two years ago, US officials were told.
The claim is made in a leaked embassy cable reporting on a meeting between Peter Robinson and US officials in November 2009.
It came as negotiations intensified to secure a deal on devolving policing and justice powers to the Assembly.
According to the cable, Mr Robinson told officials he had been privately briefed by the Order’s leadership that abolishing the Parades Commission would allow its policy of not meeting Sinn Fein on marches to be reversed.
“He said that some of the local lodges have already begun to do so,” the cable states.
