A new loyalist group, supported by the hardline Orange Order Spirit of Drumcree faction, is planning to block a nationalist parade in Co Fermanagh on Sunday. The 20-mile march from Enniskillen to Roslea is to commemorate the Roslea Martyrs' bicentenary.
Three coffins will be carried on the demonstration, which will pass through several mainly Protestant villages. The march is being supported by Sinn Fein, and the party's chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, is to address the crowd.
However, a new group - the Combined Loyalist Residents' Committee of Co Fermanagh - was set up at a meeting in Enniskillen on Wednesday night. A spokesman, who did not wish to be named, told the Belfast Telegraph it would block the march.
He expected "a couple of thousand men" to join the protest. "We are determined that this march will not go ahead. It's going through the heart of loyalism in Fermanagh - it's purely provocative," he said.
He claimed the new organisation had supporters in Enniskillen, Fivemiletown, Kesh, Lisbellaw, Tamlaght, Brookeborough and Maguiresbridge. The group is being supported by the Spirit of Drumcree faction.
The faction's leader, Mr Joel Patton, said the march was unacceptable. "It is not a traditional or cultural parade - it's a political parade, and in that sense is highly offensive." However, one of the organisers, Mr Oliver McCaffrey, insisted that the parade was historical rather than political.