Sources within the Orange Order said yesterday that senior Co Armagh Orangeman Mr Harold Gracey is expected to stand down as leader of the Portadown Orange District later this week .
It is believed Mr Gracey will announce his decision to step aside at the a.g.m. of the Portadown Orangemen, which takes place on Wednesday night.
Mr Gracey's decision to resign, after 15 years in charge of Portadown District, will surprise many Orangemen who viewed him as the public face of the Drumcree protest. The move follows Mr Gracey's standing down as District Master of Portadown Arch Purple, a section within the Orange Order, a few weeks ago.
Orange sources said they believed Mr Gracey's decision to quit was the result of a series of internal squabbles within the Portadown District over the direction the Drumcree protest should follow.
Mr Gracey was first elected leader of the Portadown District in January 1986. Later that year serious violence errupted in the Co Armagh town after the rerouting of the outward leg of the Drumcree Orange parade.
Further controversy followed in mid-1990s over the Garvaghy Road leg of the annual Drumcree parade. In July 1998 Mr Gracey took up residence in a caravan at Drumcree Hill when a Parades Commission ruling prevented Portadown Orangemen from entering Garvaghy Road.
He vowed to remain at Drumcree until the until the Orangemen were allowed to complete their parade.
However, following a decline in the Drumcree protest in 1999, Mr Gracey abandoned his vigil and returned to his Portadown home.
Mr Gracey, who now only visits Drumcree to attend morning service in the parish church, is expected to be succeeded as Portadown Orange leader by his deputy, Mr David Burrows.