Up to 100,000 Orangemen today set off on their annual Twelfth of July parades across Northern Ireland.
However, a stand-off began when an Orange Order lodge in Derry refused to join the city's main demonstration in protest at a re-routed parade.
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Britannia Lodge had been expected to march from a loyalist enclave in the Cityside across the Craigavon Bridge to join the main parade on the Waterside.
Angry members marched down to RUC lines in the Fountain areain protest.
Mr Victor Wray, a spokesman for Britannia Lodge, said Orangemen in the city felt alienated and victimised by the Parades Commission ruling, which has prevented them from taking their normal route.
"We will be staying here for as long as it takes, should it take two hours, four hours or six hours," he said.
But he also pointed out the protest did not mark a new Drumcree and that it would last for only one day.
In Belfast, crowds gathered in the city centre amid tight security to watch the North's largest demonstration as it wound its way to "the field" in Edenderry.
Ballynafeigh Orangemen in the south of the city were blocked by a security barrier from entering the nationalist Lower Ormeau Road. Another parade feeding into the main Belfast demonstration in the Ardoyne area in the north of the city passed off peacefully.
The parades will be addressed by a number of unionist politicians, including Ulster Unionist MrJeffrey Donaldson whois due to speak to Lagan Valley Orangemen in Derriaghy.
Early this morning, loyalist gunmen fired shots into the air in a show of strength in Belfast.
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UFF gunmen fire shots into the air
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Cheered on by a large crowd, the five masked members of the Ulster Freedom Fighters were armed with submachine guns and handguns.
One of the men warned beforehand: "Should the republican pan-nationalist front decide to go back to war then we accept the challenge. We, the second battalion of the Ulster Freedom Fighters, want to assure the loyalist people that we are prepared for whatever lies ahead".
Three gunmen from the Ulster Volunteer Forceput on a similar armed display in a separate part of the Shankill area.
The Eleventh Night bonfire in Portadown was last night marred by violence as rioters attacked police with petrol bombs and missiles.
The RUC said its officers used water cannon and baton guns to disperse the crowds when violence began in the Edgarstown area shortly after 1 a.m. today. Twenty one RUC officers and two civilians were injured during the rioting.
They were bombarded with petrol bombs, fireworks and other missiles during a "short but intense period of disorder", a police spokesman said.
PA