THE women buttered the soda bread in the ante-room of the Masonic Lodge while the men listened to their leader give a history lesson to the papist press.
Robert Overend, or Black Bob as he is affectionately known in nationalist circles, didn't use the term yesterday morning. But a few of his brethren levelled the P word as we were given "safe passage" through what for the past 20 hours had been the loyalist enclave of Bellaghy.
This was a kind of glasnost. A 9.30 a.m. press conference from the man who had earlier made his dislike for the media plain. "Get away from me. Get away from me," he had said. So we did.
As he folded his collarette neatly on to the table Mr Overend eyed his audience as if they were potentially rowdy guests invited into the best room in the house.
For the benefit of those of us who didn't know, he said, the Royal Black Preceptory was a Christian institution dating back to the Crusades. And for those who didn't know what the Crusades were, they were when the Crusaders tried to "regain the promised land for the Christian people".
With that out of the way Mr Overend told us that his promised land was to be about 70 feet of tarmac, leading from where the line of nationalist protesters had started to the gable end of Bellaghy's Orange hall.
It should have been the length of the street. Before they filed into the small church at the other end of the village the Black Preceptory had been assured that the street would be "cleared" on their return, he said. "Regrettably the police, who are under pressure from Sinn Fein, refused to do their duty."
So, 20 hours later, a deal had been reached and he and his marchers would take a "quiet parade up our village", turn on their heels outside their Orange hall and disperse peacefully.
A half-hour later, their backs straightened by righteous indignation and faces wearied by a night-long stand-off, about 120 marchers and bandsmen met the "illegal rabble" through a buffer zone of cameras and reporters.
Mr Overend had hoped the world's press would have taken such an interest "in all the good parades we had in the past". After the three-minute encounter, each side started their own street clearance of the litter from a night on the street.
Sunday 2.30 p.m. About 300 nationalist protesters block the upper end of Bellaghy main street. The RUC moves in and sets up a cordon of Land-Rovers.
5 p.m. The marchers from the South Derry District Royal Black Chapter approach in full regalia and demand to march the length of the village. They are turned back and agree to go to church at the other end of the village. They promise to return.
5.10p.m. The march stops outside the Church of Ireland church and marchers file in for a service.
6.19 p.m. RUC officers start revving the engines of Land-Rovers in front of the nationalists. 6.30 p.m. RUC officers advance on the nationalists from in front and behind in full riot gear, with Land-Rover back-up. Organisers tell the crowd to "remain calm". 6.38 p.m. A local priest, Father Andrew Dolan, runs to the front of the cordon to talk to officers. Other residents' representatives join him.
6.45 p.m. The RUC line facing the protesters moves back a few paces.
Ten minutes later the rear line steps back.
7.05 p.m. The loyalist band can be heard in the distance.
7.10 p.m. Father Dolan appeals to the crowd to allow the marchers through on one side of the road. Ten minutes later residents' representatives go behind a building to discuss a deal.
7.45 p.m. The Black Preceptory leader, Mr Robert Overend, comes through police lines and refuses to talk to nationalists.
8:50 p.m. Nationalist representatives propose to let the march through on the footpath with no music, no flags and no paraphernalia.
19 p.m. A nationalist representative, Mr Paul Smith, says he believes loyalists have accepted the deal in principle. Some time afterwards the DUP MP, the Rev William McCrea, arrives.
12.30 p.m. Mr Smith tells the crowd that the deal has been rejected and both sides are calling for the replacement of Acting Assistant Chief Constable Tom Craig. Some time later Deputy Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan arrives. Over the next seven hours Mr Flanagan meets both sides separately.
Monday between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m.
Mr McCrea leaves, according to Mr Overend, to make a hospital visit.
9.05 a.m. A nationalist representative, Mr Paul Henry, says they are in "serious deliberations at the moment".
9.30 a.m. Mr Overend holds a press conference announcing that loyalists will march to the Orange hall. Cordons outside are removed.
10.20 a.m. The march passes off peacefully, with loyalists facing nationalists for just three minutes as they file past. A line of photographers, separated the two groups as loyalists tiled past.
