AN ATTEMPT by some 200 Orangemen to march through the nationalist village of Dunloy, Co Antrim, failed yesterday after residents blocked the road and police kept the two sides apart.
An incipient stand off developed, but after some time the Orangemen dispersed. A spokesman said they had been denied their rights.
Extreme weather was thought to have been a major factor in shortening the confrontation. As the Orangemen, from Co Antrim lodges, gathered at the Orange Hall in Dunloy, the village and surrounding roads were covered by almost four inches of snow.
Up to 80 RUC Land Rovers were deployed in the vicinity and checkpoints were set up on all approach roads. As the Orangemen prepared to march from the hall to the local Protestant church, about 100 local residents blocked the road.
Police failed to push them out of the way and a senior officer told the Orange leaders that the risk of violence was too great and the march would not be allowed through.
Dunloy has been the scene of repeated confrontations in recent months, with the residents insisting that there must be negotiations and consent for marches and the Orange groups - who come from surrounding areas - claiming that they have a right to parade there.
On Saturday a loyalist picks outside the Catholic church at Harryville in Ballymena was scaled down considerably apparently in anticipation that the Orangemen would be allowed to parade through Dunloy yesterday.
Mr Ian Paisley Jnr, of the DUP, who was present at the Dunloy confrontation, said that loyalist protests at Catholic churches could now spiral out of control.