The Parades Commission is today expected to ban Portadown Orangemen from marching down Garvaghy Road next Sunday, a decision that will trigger a week of Drumcree protests which Orange leaders hope will spread across Northern Ireland.
Senior Portadown Orangemen yesterday called on "hundreds of thousands" of loyalists throughout Northern Ireland to support their stand against today's expected decision to re-route them away from the nationalist Garvaghy Road on Sunday.
Any "consequences" would be the responsibility of the British government, which refused to permit the march, and the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition, which opposed the parade, said Portadown Orange Order spokesman Mr David Jones.
"The government with their draconian parades legislation have created the monster and they will have to live with whatever consequences that monster brings about," he told The Irish Times yesterday.
His comments echoed the call from Portadown district master, Mr Harold Gracey, who urged over 1,000 members of the order at Drumcree "to carry this protest right across this province".
The Drumcree "rehearsal" parade from the Orange hall in Portadown to Drumcree yesterday passed off relatively peacefully, although there were scuffles at the police line blocking access to Garvaghy Road.
RUC officers holding the line were stoned and jostled by some protesters but the incident was short-lived. An Ulster Freedom Fighters' flag was taped by a protester to a British army vehicle. The Parades Commission is this morning due to announce its decision on Sunday's march. Because of the absence of any direct contact between Portadown Orangemen and the Garvaghy representatives it is almost certain the parade will again be rerouted.
The South African human-rights lawyer, Mr Brian Currin, who has been trying to broker a settlement between the two sides said there was little prospect of any meaningful dialogue between the two sides this marching season.
He hoped sometime in August, however, to begin separate "premediation" work with the Portadown Orangemen and the Garvaghy residents that, he believed, could "in the long term" break the deadlock.
In the meantime the Orange Order is stepping up the pressure by holding evening parades to Drumcree church all this week.
Mr Gracey said that if the rallies spread across Northern Ireland it would be more difficult for the authorities. "It is easy to contain us here at Drumcree but if we get support in the towns and villages they will see what the Ulsterman is about," he told the crowd.
And in a reference to the Parades Commission he added: "Let's show this unelected quango who runs Ulster - and it is not David Trimble." And he added: "I say to Tony Blair: Last year, you may have duped us. You won't this week."
On Saturday Mr Trimble urged the Orange Order to enter talks with the Parades Commission and "in the right context" to eventually engage in dialogue with the Garvaghy residents.
The Garvaghy group's spokesman, Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, was arrested on Saturday and charged with public order offences after he intervened in a confrontation between nationalists and loyalists erecting an Orange arch. He was later released. Yesterday he called on the Orange Order to accept today's ruling of the Parades Commission and to enter into dialogue with the nationalist residents.
