Orangemen begin Drumcree protest

The British Government was accused by Orangemen today of tolerating a system of "cultural apartheid" in the North.

Portadown District Orange spokesman David Jones made the accusation.

Orangemen banned from marching through a nationalist area of Portadown have launched a series of one-day events to demand the granting of a parade through the Garvaghy Road.

In the first of a series of protests today marking over a thousand days of the Drumcree stand-off, Orangemen staged a silent march from their Orange Hall in Carleton Street to Edenderry.

Portadown District officers and a representative from each of their 32 lodges left Carleton Orange Hall at 11.30am and marched in silence through the town centre before boarding a bus bound for the scene of their second protest - Hillsborough, Co Down.

The Portadown District will not take part in direct negotiations with the Parades Commission, which the Orange Order refuses to recognise.