"It wasn't our idea to meet Gerry Adams," said Darryl Hewitt.

"A Portadown businessman told us he could arrange the meeting and suggested it might be a good idea to explain the Orange ethos to the Sinn Fein leader."

Orangemen will be denied from marching down the nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown this Sunday for the 11th successive year.

The Garvaghy Road dispute has been the site of some of the most violent scenes in Northern Ireland as communities clash over the contentious march.

Speaking about the meeting with Gerry Adams Mr Hewitt said: "The officers discussed the issue and, having been given carte blanche some time ago by the rank-and-file members to talk to whoever we felt would benefit the Orange cause, we decided to go ahead."

The businessman — undertaker Ian Milne — chaired the meeting with Adams, which included Portadown officers David Jones and Nigel Dawson.

Mr Hewitt said: "Gerry Adams had an aide with him, who did not contribute — it was a straight-talking question and answers session and he now understands more about the Orange Order.

"We told him the Order was community and family orientated — much the same as the GAA on the nationalist side — and we gave him an insight on how much the parading issue means to us.

"We underlined that the Drumcree parade was to and from a Christian service which commemorates the fallen of the Somme."

The District Master went on: "We also impressed on him our determination for face-to-face talks with the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition and our disappointment that the residents were turning their backs on that.

"To be fair to Gerry Adams, he would favour talks, but it's not in his gift. Sinn Fein, in my view, put him in as a foot soldier to stop the Drumcree parade, but the foot soldier is now the general and is out of their control.

"We also asked Gerry Adams to explain his infamous Meath speech when he said that the ending of the Drumcree parade took four years in the planning.

"He claimed that he was misquoted, but I take that with a pinch of salt.

"For his part, he commented on the Ian Paisley-David Trimble so-called victory jig after the parade was forced through in the late 1990s, and we replied that both men had since been First Minister and had embraced power sharing — that things had moved on, and so should the Drumcree issue. I think he took the point.

"It was a frank, courteous meeting — it wasn't a case of drinks round the tables, lads — and I hope he knows more about the Orange Order as a result.

"We left him in no doubt we were determined to return to Portadown via the Garvaghy Road. To coin his own phrase, we haven't gone away, you know."