ORANGE marchers have been told to re-route their Remembrance Day parade away from St Mary’s Church in Calton amid fears of violent clashes.

But the Dalmarnock Orange and Purple District No.50 band could still be faced with a counter protest by members of the campaign group Call It Out, on November 11.

Glasgow’s public processions committee told organisers yesterday, that they must stay away from St Mary’s Church in the wake of an alleged attack on parish priest Canon Tom White in July.

The new route will take the marchers past St Michael’s Catholic Church on the Gallowgate.

Call It Out have refused to rule out a protest outside that church after Police Superintendent John McBride admitted he won’t seek a second re-route of the march.

Superintendent McBride said: “Call It Out have emailed me directly to make me aware they would be protesting if the march went past St Mary’s Church.

“This parade goes past St Michael’s Catholic Church where there are no issues and no wish to have it re-routed.

“If Call It Out were to come in to police and say they would protest elsewhere it would be in fairness that I wouldn’t be trying to re-route the parade elsewhere.

“You would then go down the route of they’ll be trying to change every route any time someone said they’d protest.”

Superintendent McBride said that 100 specialist public order officers would be deployed - five times that of any other parades in the city on the same day – if the march went past St Mary’s. And he admitted that he would be “preparing for the worst”.

He also claimed there had been no indication that there would be a counter protest outside St Michael’s Church.

However, we can reveal that members of Call It Out were unaware of the plans to take the march past St Michael’s Church and that a protest could now go ahead there during the march.

A spokeswoman for the group said: “They (Orange Order) shouldn’t be walking past Catholic churches.”

Three planned parades past St Alphonsus’ Church - where Canon White was allegedly attacked during the annual Boyne march - have been diverted since August after Call It Out informed police of their intention to protest.

It comes after the Orange Order’s County Grandmaster Eddie McGonnell accused Catholic church leaders of favouring Irish republican marches.

He claimed that the attack on Canon Tom White had been “inflated out of all proportion”.And he added: “We’ve got a deeply held concern that it may be the case that the Catholic Archdiocese of Glasgow has a veto on these parades. It’s happening at St Mary’s where there was no incident. We feel this is a slippery slope.”

The marchers will attend two Remembrance services, at Calton Parkhead Parish Church and then at Glasgow Green to commemorate those who gave their lives in World War I.