By now there can be little doubt that members of the Portadown District of the Orange Order are determined to remain at Drum cree until they get their (traditional) way, come hell or high water.
They will do so whatever the views of political or church leaders; whatever the views of the Orange Order's own leaders at county and Grand Lodge level; whatever the world might say.
As of now, they still retain the support of the Armagh County Grand Master, Mr Denis Watson, and that seems likely to hold. However, the support of Mr Robert Saulters, the Grand Master of the Orange Lodge of Ireland, seems to be wavering. This will not surprise the Portadown brethren.
In the recent past, Mr Saulters has been held in less than high esteem by Portadown Orangemen. The District Master, Mr Harold Gracey, has been very critical of the Grand Master's moderate leadership. At the Sunday service which preceded the current standoff he gave him a qualified welcome. Addressing the con gregation, Mr Gracey noted that Mr Saulters had arrived late (he turned up at noon for a service which began at 11.40 a.m.), but said he was "absolutely delighted" that the Grand Master was present even if he had arrived late.
When the parade returned to the church from the barrier at the bottom of the hill, Mr Gracey said he hoped Mr Saulters's presence marked a new unity among Orangemen. Mr Gracey seems to have been caught up in the emotion of the moment, as that was a hope not seriously entertained by Portadown Orangemen.
Similarly, the Orangemen have shown no surprise at the stance of the Armagh County Grand Chaplain, the Rev William Bingham, who effectively told them go home on Sunday. They say he simply used the murder of the Quinn children in Ballymoney as an excuse to do what he wanted to do anyway.
The Portadown Orangemen's spokesman, Mr David Jones, regretted that Mr Bingham should have chosen to make his remarks at a service in Pomeroy and not in the presence of the district officers at Drumcree.
Mr Gracey (63) is the district's main man. He has been District Master for six years and is a retired employee of Northern Ireland Electricity. His 27-year-old son is also an Orangeman. Locals says he is a "fairly shy man" who "dotes" on his two grandchildren. He has been in the Orange Order "almost all his life".
Mr Gracey's shyness, however, seems to desert him when it comes to issues such as Drumcree. It seems he does not present the sort of face the Portadown Orangemen wish outsiders to see.
That face belongs to Mr David Jones, spokesman for the district, by now probably the best-known Portadown man in the world. Mr Jones works in the town as an administrator with the Southern Health Board. He is in his forties, is married and has "a couple of children".
He has come to prominence during the recent Drumcree campaigns and effectively took over the press conference given by the Orange Order in Portadown last Thursday morning.
This was attended by Mr Saulters, Mr John McCrea, the Grand Lodge Secretary, and 17 cross-party unionist politicians, as well as other Orange representatives. But no one doubted who was in charge. It was Mr Jones, and he fielded most of the questions, even those intended for others.
He did so with a confidence and authority which suggested that he is a figure central to Drumcree 1998, if not the central figure.
Certainly, he has revolutionised the Portadown district's attitude to the media, allowing and encouraging practically limitless access. This is quite a change from as recently as 1996, when there was little co-operation with the media and almost uniform hostility.
Indeed, this year at Portadown the Orangemen would seem to be ahead of the Gravaghy Road Residents' Coalition in both attitude and access as far as the media is concerned.
Though just as hardline as Mr Gracey, Mr Jones uses the language of moderation. His tone is always calm, steady and measured. He avoids heat and, as with spokespeople everywhere, sometimes light. Mr Bingham, for instance, was "entitled to his view (on the standoff), as we are to ours". And that was that.
The murder of the Quinn children was "an act of gross violence" and he wished to convey the district's sympathy. But, as with the violence along the trench at Drumcree and elsewhere, it had nothing to do with the Orange Order or with the standoff.
Even in talking about Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, he maintains a reasonableness which few of his colleagues can sustain. Yet there remains always that clear, single-minded, determined approach which suggests an unshakable conviction in the rightness of what the Portadown Orangemen are doing and their innocence of any associated evil.
With the media he is always courteous, even in the most pressured circumstances, and there have been many of those.
It is difficult at times to know whether he is being just too clever, cynical or disingenuous, particularly when dealing with the issue of violence from supporters of the standoff. This is not helped by his insistence that they do not encourage the large crowds which have descended on Drumcree. "People just want to be here", he says.
That may be so, but he and his district have yet to discourage anyone from going to Drumcree, and that includes thugs with possible murder on their minds.
He and his colleagues simply want a peaceful, dignified and restrained protest, they say. But it has not turned out like that. Portadown district officers, like himself, must have known that it would not turn out like that, but they insist otherwise.