Walking her dog near the massive steel barrier at Drumcree yesterday, one woman spoke about what it is like to live in a house just a few hundred yards from the scene of a standoff.
"With the banging and the noise, you can't get your eyes closed in the night", she said. "I can't let my 14-year-old daughter out unless she is with me. You are scared about what might happen, there are guns around and you could be in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Tricolours can be seen on most lamp-posts in the area. A sign on the road reads "No Talk, No Walk". People go about their daily business, shopping, stopping for chats. Around the corner some boys are busy erecting a massive bonfire on a Protestant estate for the Twelfth celebrations.
"It's definitely worse this year", said an elderly man waiting to catch a glimpse of Education Minister Mr Martin McGuinness, who was visiting the Drumcree Community Centre on Ashgrove Road. "You are still afraid. Maybe nothing is happening here now, but you are worried about what is happening at Drumcree. You daren't go up to Portadown, you'd be insulted."
Charlie wasn't impressed by the Parades Commission's statement that in a few months a parade might be accommodated on the Garvaghy Road. "I wouldn't like to see them come down the road again. They want to come down so they can say we can tramp you into the ground whether you like it or not . . . that's their attitude all the time."
For some locals, the Drumcree issue is an unwelcome distraction from what should be a carefree summer holiday period. Three teenage girls walking along the Garvaghy Road explained how it had put a dampener on their break. "We are not allowed out after 7 p.m. because of all this", said 15-year-old Laura Cairns. "Normally, we could stay out until 1 a.m. Everyone is worried about whether there will be trouble at the weekend."
Her friend said she didn't care whether the Orange Order marched down the Garvaghy Road. "It's just a road like . . . all this trouble just to walk down a road for five minutes", said Laura Evans (16).
