The RUC Chief Constable, Ronnie Flanagan, has the unenviable task of deciding whether or not to allow Sunday's Orange march through the only
Catholic enclave in Portadown.
LOYALISTS see Dublin as being involved in the law which provides the RUC with powers to ban or reroute any of the 2,000 to 3,000 parades which they hold each summer.
Next year the decision-making power will pass from the RUC to a parades commission. But it is unlikely that the problem will go away because of that.
In the aftermath of the 1985, Anglo-Irish Agreement, exactly the same issue of loyalists marching through the small Catholic enclave in Portadown became the focus of attention in Northern Ireland.
There had been trouble at the venue in 1985 when the then RUC Chief Constable, Sir John Hermon, decided to ban the Orangemen from marching up the narrow Obins Street, which runs parallel with Garvaghy Road in the general direction of Drumcree Church.
Sir John, in his memoirs, wrote that he found the march through the narrow and entirely Catholic Oh ins Street highly distasteful and decided it would stop. He blocked the route at the "Tunnel" under the railway line and forced the incensed Orangemen to take a different route.
Orangemen rioted in 1986 and a midnight march was led down Garvaghy Road by the Rev Ian Paisley. The Garvaghy Road route was seen as something of a compromise at the time by all involved except the Catholic residents there, who wanted no march.
As a result of the near-crises which occurred in 1985 and 1986, the British government reviewed public order legislation and produced a new Public Order (NI) Order in 1987.
This put the burden of deciding whether or not to ban or reroute a parade on the shoulders of the RUC Chief Constable. Effectively, the Chief Constable makes the call and advises the Secretary of State what to do.
Article 4 of the order specifies that conditions may be imposed on a parade or march if there is a threat of serious public disorder, serious damage to property or serious disruption to the life of a community, or if the intention of the organisers is to intimidate others.
From the nationalist perspective this part of the order would seem to make the rerouting of the Garvaghy Road march an imperative.
Nationalists in Portadown are already in a distinct minority and people in the Garvaghy enclave have no doubt but that the festooning of the town centre annually in loyalist bunting and regalia and the march along Garvaghy Road are intimidatory.
However, the unionist view is that the legislation is part of a southern conspiracy to subvert their "right" to march.
The Public Order (NI) Order coming just over a year after the Anglo- Irish Agreement, is seen as part and parcel of Dublin Government interference in the internal affairs of Northern Ireland. Orangemen speak of the Act as pan of the whole nefarious and seditious plot involving turncoat British ministers, the "Free State" government and the Vatican.
They argue that the order provided nationalist counter-protestors with the opportunity to prevent marches simply by threatening violent confrontation.
They also say that the other pro vision in the Act making it an offence to prevent or hinder any lawful procession is not applied against Catholic counter-demonstrators.
The legislation has been described by the Orange Order as "lawbreaker's charter". It was amended earlier this year with the insertion of a provision that 2 days notice be given for a parade.
There is also a committee now from the British government to set up a parades commission and to remove the decision-making from the RUC Chief Constable.