Orangemen led by the DUP Assembly member, the Rev William McCrea, marched in Belfast last night in protest at the blocking of this year's Drumcree Parade in Portadown.
Fewer than 200 Orangemen took part in the parade in the strongly loyalist estate of Rathcoole on the outskirts of the city. Afterwards some 300 people attended a rally. Mr David Jones, spokesman for the Portadown Orangemen, said a protest at Drumcree would continue and he called for an inquiry into the use of plastic bullets by the RUC. There were shouts of "traitors" from the crowd at the mention of the police.
Mr McCrea said it was a privilege to associate himself with the Portadown District Master, Mr Harold Gracey, who had "more honesty in the dirt under his fingernails than Mo Mowlam has in her entire body".
The peace process was designed to take the North into an Irish Republic. "Six into twenty-six will never go", he shouted.