Orangemen in Portadown will try over coming weeks to step up their protest campaign over the Drumcree parade, despite calls by church and business leaders and the RUC Chief Constable for it to end.
A petition has been initiated and protests planned demanding the reversal of a July decision banning them from walking down the Garvaghy Road.
Up to 2,000 Orangemen, accompanied by four bands, marched through Portadown on Saturday afternoon. The town centre came to a standstill as hundreds lined streets to cheer the marchers.
The Orange Order Grand Master, Mr Robert Saulters, told the rally: "We still believe the Portadown brethren have to get down that road." He said it was time to "stop all this nonsense from the Parades Commission, from the chief of police, from the Northern Ireland Office".
Successive speakers claimed the turnout indicated support for the Drumcree protest had not waned. But the numbers fell well short of the 10,000 many Portadown Orangemen had predicted.
Spokesmen put this down to "confusion" over whether the parade would go ahead, but there were also indications of the acrimony within the Orange Order over Drumcree.
The Portadown Orange spokesman, Mr David Jones, said: "Brethren, we could have had more here today. For those, whenever you go back to your homes, who say they didn't know this parade was on, isn't it strange that the Grand Master knew?"
He added: "To those who pay lip service to this protest, ask them why they are Orangemen. Is it for some future cause for themselves, for personal gain?"
Mr Jones urged those taking part on the return parade not to respond to provocation.
He said Portadown Orangemen had been subjected since July to provocation from "church leaders, who say we do not have any support, and from businessmen, who say we are doing the town harm."
There were disturbances in Portadown shortly after the parade ended at 5 p.m., when supporters of the Orangemen clashed with police. An RUC spokesman said four policemen were slightly injured after an officer was assaulted.
Two men have been charged with disorderly behaviour and one is also facing four charges of assault. The two men will appear in court in October.
Tension in the town has remained high since July and there have been violent incidents linked to Drumcree protests. On September 5th, an RUC man was critically injured after he was struck by a loyalist blast bomb. He lost an eye and suffered brain damage.
The route of Saturday's parade avoided nationalist districts and the streets were lined by residents of the predominantly Protestant town, who brought their children out in the afternoon sunshine to cheer on the Orangemen.
The RUC traffic branch escorted the parade and security was generally low-key, but policemen and British soldiers were stationed in side streets. The atmosphere was largely good-humoured, except for shouts of abuse at the media by onlookers.
Mr Saulters was the first to sign the petition in Carleton Street Orange Hall. Those attending the rally were urged to visit Drumcree at least once a week, to wear orange ribbons, and to fund the campaign. The dates of further rallies over the coming weeks were read from the platform.
The president of the Alliance Party, Dr Philip McGarry, condemned Saturday's rally, saying it had shown unionism "at its narrowest and most destructive". He said the atmosphere in Portadown was "becoming even more bitter".
Several hundred Orangemen paraded through Portadown again yesterday. The Ulster Unionist MP and former Grand Master, the Rev Martin Smyth, addressed a religious service in a park.