Garvaghy road parade banned

Portadown Orangemen were tonight again barred from marching down the nationalist Garvaghy Road during their annual Drumcree Parade.

The Parades Commission ruled, as it has done since its creation in 1998, that the marchers cannot use the Garvaghy Road return route from the Orangemen’s church service on Drumcree Hill.

A major security operation will again be mounted by the security forces to enforce the ruling when thousands of Orangemen gather.

However police chiefs in the Co Armagh town are expected to scale down their measures from the highs of previous years amid feelings the heat has gone out of the protest.

The Commission ruled against the parade despite an 11th hour plea from Northern Ireland First Minister and MP for the Portadown area David Trimble for it to be allowed through this time.

But Mr Trimble called for calm on the streets of the province whatever the Commission ruled.

The edict on Sunday’s parade came as about 2,000 Orangemen mounted their traditional ‘‘mini Twelfth’’ parade in east Belfast.

Huge numbers of police and troops were on duty along the route and especially around the nationalist Short Strand where there have been constant sectarian clashes in recent weeks.

The parade, commemorating the Battle of the Somme, passes by the Catholic enclave where rival mobs fought gun battles last month.