Trouble flared in Portadown last night and early this morning ahead of the funeral of Lurgan solicitor Ms Rosemary Nelson who died in a loyalist booby-trap car-bomb explosion on Monday.
Nationalists and loyalists blamed each other for the violence which erupted about 9 p.m. last night and was continuing early this morning. A number of people were treated for injuries sustained including the head of the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith.
Mr Mac Cionnaith said he and his colleague Mr Joe Duffy, both of them members of Craigavon Council, claimed that police officers assaulted them as they tried to intervene during the disturbances.
"I went up to the police line to ask to speak to the officer in charge," said Mr Mac Cionnaith, "but as soon as I did I was smashed across the face by a police officer wielding a baton." He claimed that Mr Duffy was also struck.
Mr Mac Cionnaith sought aid for injury to his eye in the nearby Craigavon Area Hospital, but that he had to leave because a growing number loyalists was there. "I'm getting local treatment," he said.
The disturbances followed from an Orange Order drums display at Corcrain Orange Hall, which is close to the nationalist Garvaghy area. Lam beg drums were played which triggered nationalist annoyance that the drumming was deliberately provocative in the light of Ms Nelson's murder.
Ms Brid Rodgers, a Lurgan Assembly member, described the drumming as provocative. "Given the night, that it was the eve of the funeral of a lawyer connected to the nationalist residents' group, I think it was obscene that drums were being played in the area by Orangemen," she said.
The County Armagh Grand Master of the Orange Order and Upper Bann Assembly member, Mr Denis Watson, said Orangemen were trapped in the local Orange Hall during the disturbances, but that they later managed to clear the hall.
He believed the murder of Ms Nelson was a contributory factor in the rioting. "I would be of that view and I would say on behalf of the vast majority of Orangemen in Co Armagh that we would express total revulsion at her killing. An instance like this does not help community relations in Upper Bann. That is my view, that is the Orangemen's view and the view of my constituents."