The British and Irish governments are hoping that tomorrow's Drumcree parade will conclude with no major difficulties, thereby increasing prospects of a peaceful summer in the North.
Portadown Orangemen and the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition have urged that the 10th successive Drumcree Sunday should pass off peacefully both in Portadown and elsewhere in Northern Ireland.
The PSNI with British army backup was last night preparing its annual security operation for this year's Drumcree in which Orangemen are again banned by the Parades Commission from marching down the nationalist Garvaghy Road.
As PSNI Chief Constable Mr Hugh Orde said earlier this week, security will be of a lower-key nature than last year with an expectation that the march and its aftermath should conclude relatively calmly.
Spokesmen for the Orangemen and the Garvaghy residents said they were expecting a peaceful day tomorrow. Mr David Jones, press officer of the Portadown District, said Orangemen should act with dignity.
He said the Portadown District would again make its outward march from the centre of Portadown for a Battle of the Somme commemoration service at Drumcree church at 11.30 a.m..
At around 1 p.m., the Orangemen, led by the district's deputy master, Mr David Burrows, would march to the barricade, seeking to make its return journey by the Garvaghy Road. When this permission is refused by police, in line with the decision of the Parades Commission, the Orangemen will hand over a letter of protest. They will also observe a minute's silence in memory of Harold Gracey, the former district master of the Portadown Orange Order who died earlier this year.
Mr Jones said the district would maintain a token-type protest at Drumcree but that the vast majority of the Orangemen would disperse "peacefully and with dignity".
"I would expect everybody else associated with the parade to do exactly the same," he added.
Mr Jones said the Portadown District still wanted a resolution of the long-running dispute on the parade, and called on the Parades Commission to resume mediation efforts on Monday.
That mediation should involve the Portadown District and the Garvaghy group, he said.
However, Mr Jones said the Orangemen would not deal directly with the Garvaghy residents, as the Parades Commission has urged. "Whether face-to-face talks take place with the Garvaghy residents' group depends on whether sufficient trust can be built up," he said.
Mr Breandán Mac Cionnaith of the Garvaghy Coalition said nationalist areas of Portadown certainly would be peaceful tomorrow and he hoped that that would apply throughout Portadown and Northern Ireland.
He said he was suspicious of the district's call for renewed mediation, particularly because it consistently refused to engage directly with the Garvaghy group.
