A strong RUC presence is expected in Portadown, Co Armagh, this afternoon as a newly formed Protestant civil rights group stages a protest in the town centre.
The Concerned Loyalists of Northern Ireland, which last week mounted a picket outside one of Portadown's major shopping malls, this week announced its intention to continue a series of protests and pickets at various locations in the town to protest against what the group calls, "the continued erosion of Protestant civil rights" in the North.
A spokesman for the group, Mr Wayne McIlveen, said: "A growing number of people are becoming more and more concerned at this continued policy of appeasing nationalists at the expense of the loyalist community. That is clearly obvious here in Portadown, where loyalists are now held responsible for all the present community divisions, irrespective of their origins."
Mr McIlveen said support for the group was growing in many areas and it was hoped to form branches in other towns. He concluded by saying the group would continue to protest in Portadown for the next number of weeks.
This latest series of weekend protests has enraged the local business community, which has already suffered considerably as a result of the ongoing Drumcree impasse.