A parade and rally at Drumcree to mark the 3,000th day of the Orange Order's Drumcree protest passed off peacefully on Saturday night despite nationalist warnings that it could trigger disturbances.
Portadown Orange Order leaders had urged thousands of members and supporters to turn up for the parade from Portadown town centre to the rally point at Drumcree bridge. But just 500 Orangemen parading behind three bands, comprising 75 members, attended.
Local Garvaghy Road residents succeeded in a legal challenge on Friday to compel the Parades Commission to review its decision not to impose any restrictions on the parade and rally. It ruled that just 1,000 Orangemen and 100 supporters could participate. Yet just half that number attended on Saturday evening.
Local Orange leaders put on a brave face about their protest but privately others conceded that the turnout was disappointing and that it reflected how Drumcree was no longer a major issue.
The bowler-hatted, sober-suited Orangemen paraded past St John's Catholic Church on the top of the Garvaghy Road around 6.30pm on Saturday to the sound of a single drumbeat. A small crowd of nationalists gathered to watch the parade pass. A couple of younger nationalists in Celtic jerseys taunted "two-nil", a reference to Celtic's defeat of Rangers in a soccer game that afternoon.
A couple of supporters of the Orangemen made taunts about "Mickybo", a reference to Catholic teenager Michael McIlveen murdered in a sectarian attack in Ballymena during the summer. These taunts were condemned later by nationalist politicians.
The Orangemen paraded past Drumcree Church of Ireland church to the bridge where, since July 1998, their parades have been prevented from going on to the Garvaghy Road.
DUP MP David Simpson told the subdued crowd - this "vast audience", as he described them - that the Parades Commission, was "part of the problem, not part of the solution".
