About 15,000 Apprentice Boys are expected in Derry today for the annual Relief of Derry parade. The parade commemorates the actions of Protestant Apprentice Boys who shut the city gates against the forces of the Catholic King James in December 1688.
King James laid siege to the city until August 1689, when the Protestant forces of King William of Orange relieved the city.
Nationalists are expected to protest in Castlederg against two contentious feeder parades by the Apprentice Boys before and after the main Derry parade.
Residents in Ferguson Crescent will hold a protest this morning as the parade passes through while residents of Lurganbuoy Road are to hold a protest as the parade returns in the evening.
Sinn Féin MP for West Tyrone Pat Doherty said that the Apprentice Boys should focus their attention on the Derry parade "rather than seek to march along contentious routes in places like Castlederg".
The Ardoyne Parades Dialogue Group and the North and West Belfast Parades Forum have reached agreement with the Apprentice Boys in advance of a march in north Belfast today.
Representatives agreed that the parade would proceed as the Ardoyne group had withdrawn any formal opposition.