Rage and bitterness expressed in almost choreographed way

THERE'S an odd order to a riot. Two cars were ablaze on Garvaghy Road. Young masked men were hurling bricks at the RUC. Police in riot gear were responding with plastic bullets. Other residents and the media stood on the sides of the road relatively calmly observing the affray.

This was 30 minutes after the parade had made its way into Portadown. Fury and dejection here. Further on into town joys and exultation as the Portadown Orangemen proudly received the acclaim and the applause of the loyalist town's folk.

On Garvaghy Road though there was rage and bitterness expressed in almost choreographed fashion by stone throwing.

Youths would take a 10 yard run and lob a brick or a bottle, and then back off as a plastic bullet came in reply. Officers with shields and batons forced some youths into alleyways, and then they too slowly backed off.

A 42 year old mother of two teenage boys looked on in despair. "That solves nothing," she said. "I don't support any violence, whether here or anywhere else. But I don't think the British government should have given into the Orangemen."

The branding by several unionists and Orangemen of the nationalist estates off Garvaghy Road as hotbeds of republicanism annoyed and grieved her. "They think we're all Sinn Fein and IRA here well, we re not.

"I can't understand it. Orangemen are suppose to be Christians. But why did they have to march here? They have all the Protestant parts of Portadown to march through, why did they have to pick on a Catholic area?"

Earlier, there were grim scenes of violence as the police tore into nationalists who had staged a sit down protest on the road to try to prevent the Orangemen from passing along this disputed stretch of the Queen's highway.

Some of the nationalists lunged at the police officers a they systematically forced them off the road. They were truncheoned for their trouble. One man made a kick at one of the riot shields. He was batoned. He struck again, and was batoned again.

There were maybe 200 or 300 protesters on the road. They had swarmed onto Garvaghy Road when news broke that the Orangemen were being allowed through. Each side of the road was lined by police Land Rovers, and a heavy squad of riot police.

Around midday, the police started moving them. They tried to resist. They were forced back up the embankments of Garvaghy Road, safely away from the Orangemen who had lined up for their parade at Drumcree.

Before 1 a.m., the thump, thump, thump of a single drum, beating time, was heard. The Orangemen, seemingly many more of them this year than last year, swung from Drumcree Road onto Garvaghy Road, parading in martial form, eyes straight ahead. It they were triumphalist they were reserving that emotion for later.

Nationalists complained that, away from the cameras, they were attacked and beaten by police in the alleyways of the Catholic estates as the Orangemen passed through.

"Is this how Northern Ireland is to be ruled," said SDLP councillor, Ms Brid Rodgers. "By mob rule and threat.

When the Orangemen were safely away, the riot proper, began. Young men in masks "taunted the police lines. "Osna bruck," they shouted. "I-I-IRA". "Tiochfaidh Ar La."

Away from the trouble, members of Garvaghy Road Residents Association had gathered despondently in the Jesuit house. The Rev Eamon Stack, last year branded by the Rev Ian Paisley ash a disciple of the Pope sent to destroy Protestantism, said he was devastated.

"People here have been undermined by the mob rule of the Orange Order," he said. "Please God, the people of the world will realise that. Maybe then there can be a constructive way ahead."

He appealed for calm. "People here may be at a low ebb, but We, achieved a lot by peaceful protest. I would appeal to people to hang on, and to maintain their discipline and dignity," he said.

In a nearby community centre, Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, chairman of Garvaghy Residents Association to whom the Orange Order refused to speak for the past year, was alone with a few reporters.

"I am very angry. This community had been completely betrayed." Mr Mac Cionnaith said last year the RUC had given an assurance through the Mediation Network that Orangemen would not be allowed parade down Garvaghy Road.

"I think the peace process has been batoned, to death by the RUC. The police are nothing less than the military wing of the Orange Order and the unionist party," he added.

Back on Garvaghy Road matters had calmed a little. The RUC Land Rovers had retreated, but police still maintained a watchful eye on proceedings. The youths meanwhile were preparing for further confrontation.