THE DUP leader, Dr Ian Paisley, last night told a Protestant rally in Portadown, Co Armagh, that loyalists would not tolerate their marches being rerouted this summer.
Some 1,500 people attended the demonstration, which passed off peacefully.
The loyalists marched through Portadown before holding a rally at the town's War Memorial.
It was the second march demanding civil and religious liberties for Protestants to be held in the North in recent weeks. "We are defending our democratic right to walk on our own land," said Mr Clifford Forbes, one of the organisers.
Dr Paisley warned that loyalists would not weaken their position over coming months.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, criticised the rally as "a calculated act of intimidation" and "a slap in the teeth" for nationalists in the town.