Portadown Orangemen have defied intense pressure to abandon their protest at Drumcree after three children died in a sectarian arson attack.
The decision to continue the protest came despite calls for it to end from the North's First Minister and Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, and from the Orange Order's Grand Chaplain for Co Armagh, the Rev William Bingham.
The Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Robin Eames, also appealed to the protesting Orangemen to go home.
But the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland said it supported a "peaceful and dignified" protest at Drumcree, where Orangemen are protesting against a ban on them parading down the Garvaghy Road.
While tens of thousands of Orangemen are expected to converge on Drumcree this evening, the area was quiet early this morning. Only a handful of protesters remained on the hill after dark. A small number used catapults to direct missiles across the barbed wire at the security forces.
Pressure on the Portadown Orangemen built up during the day after the RUC said that the arson attack which killed Richard (10), Mark (9) and Jason Quinn (7) at their home in Ballymoney, Co Antrim, was sectarian.
The murders, which created a wave of revulsion throughout Northern Ireland and led to the first major public rift in Orange ranks since the Drumcree standoff began, were believed to be the work of loyalists.
At a hastily-arranged press conference outside the parish hall at Drumcree last night, the district spokesman, Mr David Jones, said that the Portadown district of the Orange Lodge had decided to "maintain a presence at Drumcree until such time as the way is clear to return to the Orange Hall on Carleton Street by the traditional route".
Mr Jones said that the decision had been arrived at "unanimously" by district officers and had the full backing of the Orange Order at both county and Grand Lodge levels.
He said that the Portadown District Brethren would assemble at Drumcree at 10.30 this morning and remain there throughout the day. He encouraged Orange Order members throughout the North to attend their local parades, which include a contentious march on the Ormeau Road in Belfast this morning. Local nationalists have undertaken to protest peacefully, but not to block the road.
Mr Jones expressed the district's sympathy to the Quinn family on the deaths of their three children, which he described as "an act of gross violence".
In a statement, the leadership of the Orange Order said that, while it supported a peaceful protest at Drumcree, protests elsewhere in the North would be be scaled down "with immediate effect".
Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, spokesman for the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition, said that the decision to remain at Drumcree showed that the Portadown District was "completely beyond the control of anyone".
The decision by the Portadown lodges to reject the appeals, announced by the Portadown District Master, Mr Harold Gracey, was taken at a meeting attended by Mr Saulters. The meeting, lasting almost three hours, took place in a small Orange hall about two miles from Drumcree.
Mr Gracey said that the decision did not amount to defiance of the Grand Master. "Robert Saulters wasn't trying to influence us in any way", he said.
The Rev Bingham made an impassioned plea during a sermon in Pomeroy, Co Tyrone, for the protest campaign against the ban on the Garvaghy Road parade to be called off, although he felt that some form of "peaceful camp" could be maintained at Drumcree.
"After last night's atrocious act, a 15-minute walk down the Garvaghy Road by the Orange Order would be a very hollow victory, because it would be in the shadow of three coffins of little boys who wouldn't even know what the Orange Order is", Mr Bingham said. "Drumcree is rapidly getting out of our hands."
Yesterday afternoon, members of the Orange Order leadership, including the Grand Master, met Mr Trimble and the Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon. Later, Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon extended their "heartfelt sympathy" to the Quinn family.
"Three young, innocent lives have been destroyed and a family left devastated by the callous, brutal killers, whose only goals are destruction and division in our society", they said in a joint statement. "We appeal to the Orangemen at Drumcree to immediately end their protest and to return to their homes. Should this happen, we ask the residents' committee and the people of Garvaghy to positively recognise the significance of such a move."
The Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, and the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, welcomed the joint statement.
Visiting the scene of the fire in Ballymoney yesterday, the Rev Ian Paisley said that the attack was "a diabolical, hellish deed".
The RUC Chief Constable, Mr Ronnie Flanagan, said: "People should now reassess their position. I think the loss of life of three children as they slept in their beds changes everything."