What's the difference between Drumcree and foot-and-mouth disease? You could foresee an end to foot-and-mouth disease.
That was a wry joke from one nationalist politician standing outside St John's Catholic Church on the top of the Garvaghy Road as Portadown Orangemen made their outward journey to Drumcree Church yesterday morning.
Drumcree Seven was officially under way and, in harmony with the sardonic comment from the politician, there is little to suggest that in future years Northern Ireland will be spared its annual July period of marching-season madness. Polarisation once again is still the anthem in Portadown.
Travelling the 30 or so miles from Belfast to Portadown yesterday, one was brought back to the period before the IRA and loyalist ceasefires. One had a sense of that old pervasive tension that up to the mid-1990s was a daily feature of ordinary life.
Along the M1 there were convoys of British army LandRovers and heavier armoured vehicles.
The two Belgian water cannon specially brought in to cope with any violence arising from the protest were moving from Belfast to Portadown as the Orangemen were gathering at the church on the hill at Drumcree.
At Drumcree bridge, St John's Church, the entrance to Garvaghy Road and other interface sections of Portadown, tall, steel barriers and razor wire were much in evidence. Portadown was again painting itself as the sectarian cockpit of Northern Ireland.
It was obvious yesterday that the chief priority at the moment is the security management of Drumcree; a resolution, if such is possible, is for another place or time.
The RUC officer in charge of operations, Mr Stephen White, warned at the weekend: "It will only take one spark to ignite or inflame the situation."
The British army has drafted in an extra 1,600 troops to the North for Drumcree. In Portadown itself there are 1,000 British soldiers and 1,000 RUC officers in place to handle any local violence or disturbances. Hundreds more are on standby for trouble, road closures, protests, or other disturbances in support of Drumcree elsewhere in the North.
The UDA leadership has said it has no great desire to get involved on the hill, although that didn't stop some of Johnny Adair's UDA supporters demonstrating at Drumcree last week.
They may make a reappearance in the nights ahead.
The Garvaghy residents' spokesman, Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, said he spotted a number of LVF members following the parade to Drumcree yesterday morning.
Any paramilitary presence on the hill will raise anxieties. However, the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, believes the situation is containable.
His intelligence is that the loyalist paramilitaries at leadership level have no inclination to become involved.
On Saturday the young Catholic man, Ciaran Cummings, was buried. His murder will have concentrated minds. Loyalists centrally may be taking a back seat, but who can count on individual members to follow their lead?
In Northern Ireland the unpredictability factor is always a big concern. None the less, this Drumcree there is greater focus on ensuring the protests are peaceful. After the Somme service yesterday morning, the Orange Grand Master, Mr Robert Saulters, urged the Orangemen to "disperse with pride and dignity".
The normally outspoken Portadown District Master, Mr Harold Gracey, was very restrained. He wanted Drumcree to be a peaceful demonstration, he said.
In Portadown yesterday there was a sense that the Orangemen's commitment to Drumcree Seven was not as strong as in previous years. Yes, Orangemen would continue to advocate their right to march down Garvaghy Road, but somehow they didn't seem to have the same heart for the standoff as at other Drumcrees.
The numbers on the hill appeared down on other years. The crowd in Portadown town centre watching the parade was also reduced. The crowd response to the speeches from the senior Orange figures at Drumcree was muted, when in other years it was fiery.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, as they prepare to chair the crucial talks in Shropshire today, will be relieved that the parade itself was trouble-free.
Whether the Portadown Orangemen will ever parade Garvaghy Road is down to whether they will ever talk to the residents. Talk without preconditions and we will see what happens, was the line from Mr Mac Cionnaith yesterday.
The Parades Commission, the South African mediator, Mr Brian Currin, several supporters of the Order and most neutral figures have advised Portadown Orangemen to talk, but so far the brethren in Portadown just can't make that leap.
There may be some life left in the idea of a proposed civic forum in Portadown where Orange and Garvaghy Road residents could engage together. The Apprentice Boys in Derry resolved their difficulties with the Bogside residents through a dialogue that was assisted by senior political, religious and business figures in the city.
A Derry DUP member, Mr William Hay, has proposed that the business people of Portadown could have a strong role to play in developing a similar dialogue. The main problem here is that Derry is different from Portadown. In Portadown, the bitterness is deeper.
The Church of Ireland Primate, Archbishop Robin Eames, in a strong message read out to the Orangemen yesterday warn ed against sectarianism and stressed that his church was dedicated to "building bridges in this community".
"Somehow under God we have got to find a new way of trusting and respecting each other," he added.
But that's still the big hurdle in Portadown. There is no trust or respect.