One of the most low-key Orange parades at Drumcree since 1995 passed off without incident yesterday. There was no army presence, while the 180 police involved represented a significant drop on numbers of security personnel present in previous years.
A single police helicopter flew overhead as the parade made its way to the church.
The estimated 400 Orangemen taking part, out of an approximate 1,000 members in the Portadown District Loyal Orange Lodge, were accompanied by two local bands as they marched through Portadown, the Corcrain estate, and into the countryside en route to the Church of the Ascension.
The parade was led by Armagh County Grand Master Denis Watson and District Master Daryl Hewitt. For the first time this year a new ex-servicemen's standard commemorating the battle of the Somme and the battle of the Diamond was carried at the front of the parade.
Numbers of well-wishers on the streets of Portadown were well down on previous years. However, observers were more numerous along the Corcrain estate, currently dominated by preparations for the eve of Twelfth bonfire, with timber-pallets stacked over 20 feet high.
Barricades were absent at the parade-route junction with Obins Street, with no fencing this year where it passed St John's Catholic Church and nearby cemetery. There was also a notable absence of Garvaghy Road residents from the grounds of St John's Church. Police vehicles and personnel were placed at intervals opposite the church grounds and cemetery, while the parade passed to a single drumbeat.
At Drumcree Church, marchers were greeted by the rector, Rev John Pickering, who reminded them that the annual service there began in 1807 and that they were also commemorating those who died on July 1st, 1916, the first day of the Somme. He asked them to also remember the men from the Royal Irish Fusiliers, 10th and 16th divisions, "drawn from what is now known as the Republic of Ireland" as well as the men of the 36th Ulster division, 5,500 of whom were killed in the first World War.
He recalled that 300 Armagh and Monaghan men from that latter division had been killed on July 1st, 1916, two from Drumcree parish (which lost 24 in the first World War), Frederick Wood and William Wiley.
In his sermon, Mr Pickering wondered why if, as has been the case, it was possible to find solutions to issues relating to parades elsewhere, it has not been possible to do so at Drumcree.
