Long March participants yesterday tackled Stage 8 of their Protestant human rights walk from Derry to Portadown, a 15-mile stretch from Lisburn, Co Antrim, to Lurgan, Co Armagh, where a rally was being held last night.
Meanwhile, the High Court in Belfast yesterday evening upheld a Parades Commission decision to reroute today's march away from the Edward Street area in Lurgan. The march organisers had challenged the decision and had originally been granted a judicial review.
One of them, the dissident Ulster Unionist councillor, Mr Jonathan Bell, said the organisers were disappointed at the court's ruling but would do nothing to "jeopardise the dignity of the march".
The office of Ms Rosemary Nelson, the human rights lawyer killed by loyalist paramilitaries in March, is located in Edward Street.
A Long March press conference yesterday morning was addressed by the Ulster Unionist MP, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson. Mr Donaldson commended the marchers on their dignity and said he was particularly pleased the walk, which had been tipped to become a "march to disaster", had so far passed off peacefully.
He said the hurt and suffering of victims was often "glossed over in the clamour for progress" and accused the British government of a lack of sensitivity to victims' feelings when it agreed to the early release scheme for prisoners.
Mr Donaldson added: "I have heard this march criticised because it has focused on the rights of the Protestant community. Yet we never hear such criticism when Sinn Fein focuses on the rights of nationalists. Protestant victims do not pretend for a moment that they have a monopoly on suffering, but there is a serious issue of injustice here which needs to be addressed."
Regarding the legal challenge, Mr Donaldson said he hoped the march would be allowed to conclude its planned route, but appealed to people not to cause any violence or react to provocation should the decision go against them.
Yesterday's march was led by Mrs Thelma Johnston, whose son, Constable David Johnston of the RUC, was shot dead by republican paramilitaries while on patrol in Lurgan two years ago.
Mrs Johnston said the marchers wanted peace for all people, Catholic and Protestant, and added she was praying for a positive outcome of the negotiations at Stormont.
"My son was a community policeman. He did not have a sectarian bone in his body.
"I hope people from both communities can come out and support the Long March in Lurgan tomorrow in the way they supported me when David and his colleague, John Graham, were shot," Mrs Johnston added.
Another participant at yesterday's march was Mr Joe McIlwaine, whose son, Joe, a 20-year-old part-time Ulster Defence Regiment soldier, was shot 12 times while working as a greenkeeper at his local golf course on June 12th, 1987.
The 100 or so marchers left Lisburn at around 10 a.m. and arrived in Lurgan at around 4.30 p.m. after holding a remembrance service in Dollingstown near Moira, Co Armagh.
An Orange Order parade was attacked in Lurgan last night during which there were two arrests. The parade was attacked at about 8.30 p.m. at the railway crossing at Lough Road and William Street. Missiles were thrown and police moved in to restore order. No injuries were reported.