The Hillside Cafe may still be open at the Portadown Orangemen's site close to Drumcree parish church, but business is in recession as the number of people supporting the protest dropped sharply in recent weeks.
Prior to this year's parade on July 4th, a considerable number of Orangemen and their supporters were present at Drumcree on a nightly basis. Attendance outside the Co Armagh church had become an Orange ritual. It was good to be seen at Drumcree, to be part of the protest.
The Hillside Cafe, a temporary structure built close to the road which leads from Drumcree to the nationalist Garvaghy Road, became the focal point of the protest. Dispensing tea, coffee, soup, sandwiches and hamburgers, it may not have merited recognition from Egon Ronay. However, for Orangemen it was a place to meet, where old friendships were renewed and new ones formed. There was an air of solidarity and determination through the long winter nights. Since July 4th, that so-called "Spirit of Drumcree" has evaporated dramatically. The spirit, it would appear, has all but gone out of Drumcree. Only a handful of protesters now gather religiously each night. Gone are the majority of the Orange stalwarts who continued the protest. Gone too is the atmosphere of unity and harmony. It has been replaced by dissension and acrimony as hardline Orangemen accuse the Portadown brethren of adopting "sell-out tactics" and "pro-Trimble policies", which the militants say were applied to this year's parade.
There is no doubt that the Portadown Orangemen scored a public relations victory at Drumcree this year. The unexpected happened, a peaceful Drumcree. So peaceful that many television crews and journalists packed up and left after the first 24 hours.
But some Orangemen feel they were unable to capitalise on this, and lost the initiative which might have led to a resolution to the impasse. With morale reportedly so low, it is doubtful if the spirit of Drumcree can ever be restored.