THE July 12th parade in Cookstown, Co Tyrone, was a peaceful family event but the Orangemen's sympathy with the spirit of their Portadown brethren was ever present.
At a tee-shirt stall in the town centre, vests with the slogan "Drumcree victory two in a row" were popular, out selling Boyzone tee-shirts by four to one.
At the field, where up to 4,000 bandmen and members from 85 lodges gathered, speakers criticised church leaders and the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Annesley, for their roles in the Drumcree stand-off. The Cookstown parade began at 11.30 am. when more than 1,000 members and bandsmen from the 13 private lodges in the Cookstown District Orange Lodge set off from the north end of the bunting-clad main street. They moved towards a marshalling field on the Grange Road at the opposite end of the town.
About 5,000 onlookers lined the streets to wave and cheer. Children played with plastic drum kits while teenagers strolled around with their hair dyed red, white and blue. Union Jacks flapped from almost every home and business premise along the main street.
Police presence was discreet with small groups of officers standing in their shirt sleeves at intervals as the procession made its way along the two-mile route.
Before the parade entered the field it passed a burnt-out car - the only reminder of the civil disturbances of the past week. The 1,000 members of the Cookstown District Lodge were joined by about 3,000 Orangemen and band members from the other six which form the Co Tyrone lodge. Sashes were smoothed and bowler hats straightened and the Orange procession set off again, this time to the field on the Moneymore Road.
It was after 3 p.m. when platform proceedings got under way. A small crowd gathered around a platform to hear prayers and speeches from the district masters. The Tyrone grand chaplain, Rev Robert Boyd, condemned Sir Hugh Annesley for blocking the Garvaghy Road march, a decision which had "almost brought the province to total anarchy".
The district master of Killyman District Lodge, Mr Joel Patton, told the crowd that 1,000 republicans and nationalists had attempted to prevent Orangemen in Coalisland from boarding their buses earlier in the day to attend the Cookstown demonstration.
"There will be trying days ahead and that is an example of what will be in the future," he said. "We should be assured that this institution will take a stand against every strand of the pan-nationalist front as it rages against us. It is only with determined and committed leadership that we will finally seal victory and I hope that this institution will be steadfast in achieving that victory."
Coagh District Master, Mr William Bigger, criticised Protestant church leaders for "condemning their own people". Orangemen were being denied access to Protestant churches for Sunday services. Cardinal Cabal Daly and Jesuit priests who had mediated on the Garvaghy and Ormeau roads disputes were part of "the pan-nationalist front which is not only out to destroy Orangeism, our history and our culture but to destroy the very Protestant religion".
He said: "We must continue to stand for our principles despite provocation from wherever it might come, be it the Church of Rome, the pan-nationalist front, the RUC, the British government or yankee cowboy senators and all the rest of it with their plastic smiles and facelifts that seem to arrive in northern Ireland from time to time to tell us what to do. I have a message for Senator Mitchell. Tell him to go back to Alabama, tell him to go back to Atlanta and sort out his own problems."
The parade dispersed at around 5 p.m. without any incident, according to a police spokesperson.