The Royal Black Institution last night called off two contentious parades which were to take place today in Newtownbutler, Co Fermanagh.
The decision followed protests last night by hundreds of nationalists outside the RUC station in the village, calling for the two parades to be banned. Disorder was feared in the Border village as nationalists planned to try to block the morning and evening parades.
However late last night the Royal Black Preceptory said it was calling off the parades "in the interests of the Protestant and Roman Catholic people of Newtownbutler". In a statement issued to a local radio station, it appealed for today to be one "when the people of the locality can go about their normal business unhindered".
Royal Black members had planned to parade through the mainly nationalist village this morning before travelling to the main county demonstration 10 miles away in Maguiresbridge. They were to march again on their return in the evening.
Some 200 residents had met on Thursday night to discuss protests against the parades, and the Newtownbutler Area Residents' Association had called on nationalists from across Ireland to converge on the village in support of their protests. The residents' association had also urged the Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, to ban the marches.
A local Ulster Unionist councillor, Mr Cecil Noble, claimed that the residents' group was a "dying organisation" which was losing support among Catholics.
He said yesterday: "They are trying to cause trouble and are going to wreck their own village. They want to destroy their own area for everything else. They have no vision."
Last Sunday evening two RUC officers and six protesters were injured when trouble flared in the village as nationalist residents were moved by police from the path of a church parade.
In nearby Roslea, Co Fermanagh, the Black Preceptory said it would reluctantly accept the RUC's decision to curtail its march.
The local Sinn Fein councillor, Mr Brian McCaffrey, who is a member of the Roslea residents' group, welcomed the police decision, which he said was a sensible solution.