Pleasure without complacency would best summarise the attitude of Orangemen at Drumcree yesterday as peace came dropping slow in the warm sunshine.
Mr Nigel Dawson, district secretary of the order in Portadown, and organiser of Sunday's parade, was emphatic there was no deal dictating the conduct of Drumcree this year.
"There is no deal at this moment in time that I am aware of," he said.
He was sure, however, that Drumcree was to the forefront of Tony Blair's mind. Mr Blair gave local Orange officers, including Mr Dawson, such an assurance at a meeting in Stormont last Friday.
"I think everyone recognises the parade has to take place to bring this [crisis] to a conclusion," he said, "I believe we are edging towards that. Common sense dictates it." Local Orange representatives had met Mr Blair "half a dozen times in as many days" last week, Mr Dawson said. "He knows us by name now." They had done things Mr Blair had requested but he felt constrained by confidentiality from saying what these were.
He felt confident that with regard to Drumcree, Mr Blair "wants to see a just and lasting solution, as we do." Explaining the decision why just the Portadown District's six officers and not the parade proceeded from the church to the barricade on Sunday, he said they wished to give maximum media exposure to the barrier on Independence Day in the US.
It also allowed RUC officer sub-divisional commander Supt Marvyn Waddell to hear their protest. It was agreed the order would ensure Supt Waddell's safety. One way they did this was by persuading the crowds to stay at the church. "Our people responded magnificently," he said.
He said the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, rang him later that afternoon on his mobile phone to explain that the police were enforcing the law. Mr Flanagan also congratulated the order on how it had handled events at Drumcree earlier in the day.
Mr Dawson said in discussions with the RUC it was decided that the rally after the protest would take place in the field behind the rector's house this year as opposed to the church gates because of the large numbers involved. It made for greater safety and allowed more press to cover the event.
Another difference between Drumcree Four and Five is that this year visits from county lodges took place prior to the Sunday service. The arrival of some of these lodges last year played a major factor in fomenting violence.
Mr Dawson said there was a void in their plans for last week so they had asked the county lodges to come then but they were also aware it might help the situation if a side-effect of the decision was a reduction in the possibility of violence.
The grand secretary of the Orange Order and Armagh's county grand master, Mr Denis Watson, said Drumcree last year had been "a total disaster for the order."
When he took over as county grand master in 1996, he had promised Mr Harold Gracey, Portadown district master, that he would stand shoulder to shoulder with him until Drumcree was resolved.
He was convinced after 1996 the problem wouldn't happen again, and was not particularly happy with how it was resolved in 1997 when the march was forced down Garvaghy Road against the wishes of the residents.
"We thought we had it solved [then] and didn't do any more work on presenting our case. That was the fatal mistake we made," he said.
So when the parade took place last year he would have to say no one would have believed they would still be there 367 days later.
Few Portadown members expected or were prepared for a standoff last year, he believed.
"It was hard to stomach, putting us as British subjects in confrontation with the security forces. It was hard to understand spending all that money when policing a 7 1/2 minute parade down the Garvaghy Road would have cost so much less. There'd maybe have been two or three days of nationalist violence, which is understandable, but that would have been it." Looking back to last year, he believed the order held the high moral ground for the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and that's when it lost it.
"The yobbos didn't seem to realise the damage they were doing to us." And after the violence "the press just didn't want to know". He is pleased with how things have gone so far this year.