Orangemen in Portadown, Co Armagh, have resumed their protest at Drumcree Hill which had been temporarily suspended due to the foot-and-mouth outbreak.
About 200 Orangemen assembled at Drumcree Parish Church at lunchtime yesterday to mark 1,000 days of the protest.
The Orangemen, accompanied by Orange Order Grand Master Mr Robert Saulters, marched a short distance from the church to where RUC vehicles and officers blocked the road leading to the nationalist Garvaghy Road.
The Portadown Deputy Master, Mr David Burrows, called on the senior RUC officer on duty to remove his officers from the roadway and allow the Orangemen to complete their parade by their traditional route.
However, an RUC chief inspector refused the request, informing the Orangemen that police officers would remain in position to enforce the Parades Commission determination of July 2000, which prevents the Drumcree Orange march from entering the Garvaghy Road.
The Orangemen then held a short religious service in front of the police lines before returning to Drumcree Hill where they were addressed by Portadown District Master Mr Harold Gracey and Mr Saulters. Mr Gracey told the assembled Orangemen that the suspension on Drumcree had been lifted and the protest would continue until the Orange parade got down the Garvaghy Road.
The District Master criticised Mr Seamus Mallon's refusal to meet the Portadown Orangemen in his capacity as the North's Deputy First Minister.
Referring to Mr Mallon's offer to meet the Orangemen as deputy leader of the SDLP, Mr Gracey was cheered when he said: "If he doesn't meet us as Deputy First Minister, above politics, then he won't be meeting us at all." Mr Saulters said he believed the Drumcree protest would continue for the foreseeable future.
"I think it could go a lot longer because the brethren here are determined to stand here until they do finish that parade," he said. The Grand Master said he could not envisage talks between the Order and residents' groups in the immediate future.
However, he did not dismiss the possibility of a further involvement with Drumcree mediator, South African lawyer Mr Brian Currin.