PSNI downgrade security at Drumcree parade
Police in the North announced today that they’ve decided to downgrade security at this year's Drumcree Orange parade in Portadown.
The last two years' parades have been peaceful and Orange leaders have asked for a peaceful protest at the re-routing of the march again this year.
The fields and stream close to Drumcree Church were turned into a virtual warzone in recent years with lines of razorwire, high density lighting, first aid tents and many hundreds of British soldiers on duty.
For the last two years the Orangemen have protested at the huge metal barricade blocking their path to the nationalist Garvaghy Road but there's been no serious violence.
Most concern this year is focused on this Tuesday evening’s Orange Parade in Ardoyne where republican ex-prisoners are reluctant to act as stewards after the re-imprisonment of Sean Kelly.
People protesting at Kelly's rearrest picketed British employment secretary David Blunkett this morning, preventing him attending an EU meeting.
