The Orange Order yesterday marked 5,000 days of protest over the continuing Drumcree dispute in Co Armagh.
As happens every Sunday, a group of Orangemen met at Drumcree Parish Church to march as far as a police line, where they handed over a letter of protest.
The weekly protest is in response to the ongoing decision of the Parades Commission that the Orange Order may not return along the nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown on their annual summer parade.
Speaking at yesterday’s event, which attracted a larger crowd than usual, Portadown District Master Darryl Hewitt blamed the commission and the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition for the impasse, and said the order was willing to negotiate.
“It was suggested in September 2011 that there could be some sort of round-table talks involving all interested parties,” he told about 100 supporters. “We told the Parades Commission we were up for it and to arrange a time and place . . . To date, the Parades Commission . . . have not been able to get any talks started.”