Protesters confront police as pressure is stepped up

Protests by Orange men and women around Portadown yesterday signalled an increase in pressure by the Orange Order for its parade to go down the nationalist Garvaghy Road.

Train services to the town were cancelled and shops closed when about 500 women and children and a number of men marched from the town centre to the bottom of the Garvaghy Road in support of Protestant families behind the security barriers.

Demonstrations at the entrances to the Garvaghy Road area continued all day, and protesters said they would stay until the Orange Order marched down that road.

The chairman of the Garvaghy Residents' Coalition, Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, said the nationalist community was now effectively in a state of siege. There was a "very deliberate five-stage plan by the Orangemen" and they were now at stage two. He did not know what the other stages were but believed Friday would be D-day.

The demonstrations began at about 6 a.m. when a number of men moved into an area beside the Catholic church on the Dungannon road. They blocked the road for a time and were then pushed back by RUC officers in riot gear.

Later in the morning about 100 protesters moved in again in an apparent attempt to block the road in a continuing confrontation with the police. Officers in riot gear pushed them off the road and onto the footpath.

Northern Ireland's youngest Assembly member, Mr Paul Berry (22) of the DUP, who was among the demonstrators, said it was a peaceful protest and he had seen no cars being blocked.

As local Catholics gathered to watch from behind the security cordon, Mr Berry said, "it's a bit hypocritical of the residents to say they don't want us to march down and then to stand there watching us".

He said they had the backing of the Orange Order. "We will remain peaceful," he said, but added: "I want to say to Mo Mowlam, Gerry Adams, Tony Blair and all the other republican scum that we will not be trampled off the streets of Ulster by the RUC."

At the bottom of the Garvaghy Road, where a security gate was in place, a much smaller group of protesters gathered on a traffic island. One of them, Mr George Walker of the Lurgan district lodge, said they were there to support the parade. "As born-again Christians we want to keep our religion and culture and hope we don't offend others." He stressed that they were there peacefully and would stay for as long as it took. They could not be responsible for others engaged in violence.

In the afternoon about 500 Protestant women and children, with some men at the back of the parade, marched down to the security gate, where they were met by representatives of the 100 Protestant families living at the edge of the nationalist area.

The women attempted to hand in a letter of protest for the families, but the security gates were closed for the duration of the protest. "They are hemmed in by the Berlin Wall," said one of the women. The women said they were demonstrating in support of their husbands in the field in Drumcree. "We are sick and tired of being put down," said one woman. "Brendan McKenna is holding Ulster to ransom for the sake of a 10minute parade down the road." Another woman said she "lived up in Churchill Park on the Garvaghy Road for years, but we had to leave because of attacks by Catholics."