The decision by loyalists to seek widespread protests today reflects the reality here that they cannot make any impact on the defences built by British army engineers over the past two weeks.
Along with the sheet-metal barrier on the road from Drumcree Church, there is a 15-metre wide barrier of razor wire running the length of the fields where previous years' protests have taken place. The soldiers have also deepened and widened the ditch that runs along the bottom of the protest field and lined it also with razor wire. The soldiers also ploughed the bottom part of the field and this turned soil became sticky and difficult to move across after a few heavy showers. The entire protest area is monitored by cameras mounted on pylons and by live video link to an overflying helicopter, giving the military and police commanders clear views of the area throughout. Video recording can also be used in prosecutions of rioters or of people using weapons.
Compared with previous years, there was a very light military and police presence in the area, with only about 10 of the army's Saxon armoured personnel carriers (APCs) and a few other Land Rovers and support vehicles. A field hospital has been put in place behind the main road barrier.
The continuation of the annual Drumcree protests has allowed the military and police to develop and expand physical defences and their responses to events. There is a large military and police force available but this is being held in reserve, mostly at Mahon Barracks in Portadown, until they are needed. While there is little violence, the reserves are kept in barracks and out of public view in order to reduce the sense of tension in the Portadown area. In previous years there was a large perimeter force stopping and checking vehicles. The only checks yesterday were at the top and bottom of Garvaghy Road.
Yesterday afternoon only a few hundred loyalist demonstrators gathered at the roadway and field and no effort was made to breach these defences. The strengthening of the physical defences has also provided the police and soldiers with a means to restrain the protesters without the large-scale use of plastic baton rounds, better known as plastic bullets.
The RUC said only two plastic bullets have been fired in the past week, reflecting the force's change of public order policing policy arising from the 1998 Patten Report. This referred to plastic bullets as a "controversial weapon". Some 13 people have died as a result of plastic bullets fired by the security forces in Northern Ireland.
The report recommended that the police find a "less than lethal alternative to the plastic bullet round".
It said the force should reduce reliance on the weapons and when they were deemed necessary, they should be treated in the same way as a firearm and used only by specialised officers. Such use should also be authorised only by a district commander and there should be reports on each incident. The report also recommended police make video recordings of incidents where plastic bullets are fired.
Plastic bullets are also to be used only where there is a threat to life rather than property. The absence of these weapons has encouraged some of the loyalist rioters in the past week. RUC sources indicated over the weekend that they expect further loyalist rioting over the coming days, culminating in the annual Twelfth of July demonstrations on Wednesday.
As part of its efforts to find a "capable, effective" alternative, the RUC has deployed the water cannons borrowed from Belgian police which were used successfully against rioters during last month's Euro 2000 soccer finals. It remains to be seen how effective the water cannons, which have not been used in Northern Ireland since the late 1960s, will be against concerted rioting.