Church leaders at this morning’s Drumcree Battle of the Somme commemoration service called on members of the Orange Lodge to maintain a peaceful and dignified protest.
|
|
Orange Order marchers
|
Around 2,500 people attended the service where the District Grand Master Mr Harold Gracie told the crowd the protest would continue and urged for calm.
During the service the Reverend John Pickering read out a strongly worded statement from Archbishop Robin Emmes which called for calm.
In the statement Archbishop Emmes said: "I do not need to remind you that are those outside who are ready and able to make use of your protest for actions which are divisive, criminal and malicious, and action which bring shame on the name of this province, the name of the Orange institution and indeed the name of Christianity."
"When the service is over and you leave the church I do not need to remind you that the eyes of the world will be onyou. Pictures of your actions will be portrayed across the world through TV and in each of those pictures the background will be the site of the parish church in which you now worship"
"The barrier at the bridge beyond the church seems to many people to be saying in a very visual manner that this is the end of road for the Orange order and the end of the road to Northern Ireland," he said.
"But this barrier need not be saying we are at any end in the life of our country."
Reverend John Pickering, in his address, also called for a "dignified protest".
"The barrier at the bridge beyond the church seems to many people to be saying in a very visual manner that this is the end of road for the Orange order and the end of the road to Northern Ireland," he said.
"But this barrier need not be saying we are at any end in the life of our country."
The marchers to the church passed all the potential flashpoints along its outbound route without incident, in what is a more low-key march than previous years.
|
|
A British soldier erects barbed wire at Drumcree
|
They passed heavily-fortified British army barricades at the nationalist enclaves at Obins Street and the Ballyoran estate.
There was a sparse and largely subdued crowd of onlookers lining the parade route.
Prior to the march, Portadown District Lay-Chaplain Rev Cecil Allan asked the assembled Orangemen not to "discredit their colours by responding to those who might try and provoke them".
Orangemen have maintained a continuous protest on the hill at Drumcree since they were first prevented from parading down the Garvaghy Road in 1998.
The deputy District Master of the Portadown Orange Lodge Mr Burrows repeated the call by the Portadown Orange Order for a peaceful protest.
Earlier, Mr Paul Berry of the DUP said there was no "mixed message" coming from the Portadown Orange Lodge.
He denied the presence of an Orangeman with a T-shirt supporting jailed loyalist leader Johnny Adair was in any way contradictory to the Order’s call for peaceful protest.
"It doesn’t matter under what banner people march, as long as they are peaceful," he said.
There were no reports of major incident overnight in the area, which was described as "quiet" by an RUC spokesman.
The RUC and British Army have placed barbed wire and razor wire in the fields surrounding the Church of Ireland and St John's Catholic Church in a £6 million security operation.
They have dug up fields adjacent to the barrier on Drumcree bridge and widened a water-filled ditch, transforming the area into a "No Man's Land".
Up to 1,600 additional troops have been put in place to cope with possible attempts by Orange supporters to gain access to the Garvaghy Road.
Additional reporting by PA
