The Armagh-Donegal Ulster football final and the World Cup final are expected to help ensure that Drumcree's annual church service and parade will pass off uneventfully tomorrow, despite the parade not being allowed to continue to Portadown through the Garvaghy Road.
It has not been permitted to take that route since 1997. A low-key security operation will be put in place by the PSNI,reflecting expectations on all sides.
This year the parade, which first took place in 1807, will also commemorate the 90th anniversary of the first day of the Battle of the Somme, in which 300 young Protestant men from Armagh and Tyrone were killed.
Portadown District Loyal Orange Lodge spokesman David Jones said yesterday they were "expecting things to be quiet" tomorrow and that members of the local lodge there would be the only ones taking part.
They would attend the annual service at the Church of the Ascension in Drumcree before parading to the bridge at the bottom of Drumcress hill where, as in recent years, a letter of protest at the parade being stopped will be read before being passed to a senior police officer.
The parade will then return to the top of the hill and disperse.
Breandán Mac Cionnaith, of the Garvaghy residents group, agreed that it was expected to be quiet in Portadown tomorrow.
Recent times there had been "the quietest for 30 years", he said. "New life has returned to the town with prosperity for both communities. Ten new units at the business centre have been occupied. It would be a foolish person who would try to ignite a situation which would impact on both communities," he said.
He added that between 100 and 150 residents in the Garvaghy and Obins Street areas of Portadown were Portuguese.
