Portadown Orangemen are insisting that there will be no letup in their protests after much of Northern Ireland was brought to a standstill yesterday evening, with roads blocked in the cities and in major towns and villages.
Violence erupted during some of the demonstrations, which had been scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. and end at 8 p.m. A number of the protests were continuing last night well beyond the announced cut-off time.
Yesterday's rush-hour began at 3 p.m. in Belfast, Coleraine, Portadown, Armagh, Ballymena and in other large towns in the North as businesses responded to the Orange-orchestrated road closures by sending staff home early.
By 4 p.m. the main streets of most of the larger population centres, apart from the nationalist west bank of Derry, were virtually devoid of both traffic and people, apart from those who were blocking the roads.
Last night tension remained particularly high in Portadown and at nearby Drumcree, where Orangemen and loyalists were congregating for another night of protest, following the violence there on Sunday night and early yesterday morning.
At about 6 p.m. a number of people were injured in Portadown town centre when police baton-charged a group of demonstrators who had been throwing stones. Later, near the loyalist Corcrain estate in Portadown, police used water cannon on demonstrators when, according to the RUC, officers came under "heavy and sustained attack" from stones and other missiles.
A number of vehicles were hijacked and set alight in other parts of the North. In Antrim an SDLP councillor, Mr Oran Keenan, had his car hijacked and turned over by protesters.
Further disruption is planned for today, ahead of the Twelfth demonstrations, which will attract thousands of Orangemen to various parades tomorrow. In order to maximise the effect of their action, the Orangemen are switching tactics by staging what they call "sporadic" or surprise demonstrations today, again designed to cause traffic chaos.
Mr David Jones, spokesman for the Portadown Orangemen, said that they were quite pleased with the way the protests went, although he would have preferred if there had been no violence. "The Twelfth will go ahead as per normal, but you will just have to wait and see what happens after that", he added.
The Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, was adamant that he would not capitulate to Orange pressure. "If you think that I or the Parades Commission or anyone else is simply going to step back or step aside in the face of this violence, this bullying, the activities of the thuggish element, simply to allow the Portadown District to have their way, then you are very mistaken", he said.
The North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, said that the way to resolve the Drumcree crisis was through dialogue with the Parades Commission.
