With only a matter of days to go before the annual parade and service to Drumcree parish church, we are experiencing the usual media hype.
Whatever happens, commentators will quickly disappear after the event, probably not to be heard of again until next year.
This has not been a luxury enjoyed by the officers of Portadown District Loyal Orange Lodge (LOL) No 1 and other leading Orangemen who since 1998 have worked continually in order to resolve the Garvaghy Road impasse.
This is where the problem lies: on the Garvaghy Road and not at Drumcree. That the brethren of Portadown District LOL No 1 remain at Drumcree is not due to their lack of involvement but is down to the inertia of the Parades Commission and the veto given to the Garvaghy Road residents.
It was this unelected, unrepresentative quango (the Parades Commission), under the then chairmanship of Alistair Graham, which in 1998 prevented Portadown District Lodge from completing their traditional return parade to Carleton Street.
As a response to the commission's determination and the legislation that set it up, Portadown District Lodge began its protest at Drumcree - a democratic right in any society. The overriding reason why the seat of the protest was at Drumcree was because it was here that the parade was stopped by the RUC.
Since the start of the protest the Orange Order has not simply stood at Drumcree but has participated fully in various processes initiated by the Prime Minister and chaired by Jonathan Powell, Frank Blair, Adam Ingram MP and George Howarth MP.
Indeed it was the Prime Minister himself who told the District Officers in July 1999 they had been "imaginative and had taken risks" in trying to reach a resolution. The most recent talks have involved Brian Currin, an eminent South African lawyer, though little has been achieved.
The Parades Commission sponsored none of these processes. It has hidden behind the processes initiated by the Prime Minister.
During talks chaired by Adam Ingram, the Orange delegation agreed to the proposal that observers should be present and report to the commission on the level of "positive and meaningful dialogue".
On learning of this the residents objected to the observers. They refused to continue until the observers had left the building. Not long afterwards the process collapsed, with the residents refusing to accept Ingram's impartiality.
The Orange delegation has consistently asked during each process what needed to be done to make the parade more acceptable to the Garvaghy residents. No answer has been forthcoming. The residents' only interest was in discussing issues unrelated to the parade and about which the Orange Order can do nothing.
Following the 1995 standoff caused by the residents' illegal roadblock, the Orange Order voluntarily re-routed the Twelfth of July morning feeder parade away from the Garvaghy Road. It is often overlooked that the return Orange parade from Drumcree Church is confined to members of Portadown District Lodge. Members of the public are forbidden from accompanying the parade. The bands play no music in case the host community would deem this offensive. Residents have recognised none of these accommodations.
Tony Holland, chairman of the Parades Commission, continues to say the Portadown District representatives must speak to the commission and residents face to face. Although Portadown District Lodge's legal representative and elected representatives have met both him and the residents, this is deemed to be insufficient.
How is "meaningful dialogue" to be quantified and who should measure it? The question could be asked: did "meaningful dialogue" not take place during proximity talks?
Perhaps this was why the residents refused to have observers present at the Ingram talks. If they cannot dictate terms they are not prepared to take part. Is this their perception of justice and equality?
Clear indications from all the processes have shown no desire by the residents to resolve the problem of the Garvaghy Road, and why should they? In the residents' terms, the matter has been resolved. There are no Orange feet on the Garvaghy Road. The Parades Commission saw to that one.
Community relations have clear ly deteriorated in Portadown since 1998. The Parades Commission made a ruling and it is now left to the people to deal with the distrust and the aftermath.
The 1998 legislation bringing about the Parades Commission was fundamentally flawed and its subsequent decisions in relation to the Garvaghy Road have been discredited. What we have now is legalised cultural apartheid.
David Jones is press officer with Portadown District Loyal Orange Lodge No 1.