There was brief unity of colour if not of creed yesterday morning. The loyal brethren with their Orange collarettes gathered in Portadown town centre. Nationalists with their own orange regalia gathered along Garvaghy Road.
Then they went their separate ways: the Orangemen to another standoff in Drumcree, the nationalists in their orange supporters' jerseys to cheer on Armagh in the Ulster championship game against Derry in Clones.
For those nationalists who remained, Drumcree community centre, off Garvaghy Road, was the nerve centre.
There was no anti-smoking new orthodoxy here. People puffed anxiously on their cigarettes, sipped coffee and tea, watched BBC 2 as it recorded the unfolding march, kept a sharp ear for every new rumour of betrayal.
There appeared to be scores of international observers. Politicians came and went. Dara O'Hagan, Francie Molloy, John Kelly for Sinn Fein; Brid Rodgers and Alex Attwood for the SDLP.
Bernadette Sands McKevitt and Francie Mackie from the 32-County Sovereignty Movement also kept an eye on proceedings.
Locals were prevented from getting near the Garvaghy end of the massive Drumcree barrier. None of them appeared particularly bothered by this. While the Orangemen gathered in the fields across the trenches and rows and rows of razor wire they went about their business, listened to the match, chatted in Drumcree centre.
It was just as well they missed the young loyalist who managed to make his way across the no-man's land of razor and barbed wire to plant a Red Hand of Ulster flag just 20 yards from where Sir Ronnie Flanagan was chatting to some of his RUC subordinates.
The fact that the young man avoided ripping himself to shreds was testament to his athleticism. A future Northern Ireland hurdler for certain, if he ever tires of marching.
Curiously, the fact that the Orange parade appeared to be so orderly and well marshalled was making some twitchy in the community centre.
A few fireworks were thrown from the loyalist side in the evening, but at the time of writing it was fairly harmless.
Breandan Mac Cionnaith reassured local people that, whatever about speculation of Tony Blair promising the Orangemen a march if they behaved themselves, there would be no Orange feet on the Garvaghy Road without the say-so of residents.
One of the Garvaghy Coalition bitterly decried the historian and writer Ruth Dudley Edwards for her Orange Order sympathies. In this nationalist centre Ms Dudley Edwards gave as good as she got.
People milled about in "United We Stand" T-shirts, the nationalist version of "No Surrender".
The huge security operation provided comfort for the nationalists, but they realised that if Drumcree Mark V lasts as long as Drumcree Mark IV - 12 months - they are in for another year of an ever-increasing sense of siege.
They also realise that they will come under intense pressure in the coming days to make some form of deal.
There was some good news for the Garvaghy nationalists, however. The orange of Armagh narrowly put paid to Derry.
Their supporters could come home happy. The Orangemen, however, will be at Drumcree for a while yet.