THE RUC Chief Constable Sir Hugh Annesley, said that he, had not come under any political pressure to allow the Orange Order parade go down the Catholic Garvaghy Road in Portadown.
But there could be no doubt that psychological pressure was used against his officers on the ground at Drumcree through the four night confrontation.
Indeed, that psychological pressure became psychological warfare on Wednesday the fourth and final night of the stand off when reporters were called to an off the record briefing by the Orange Order.
At that meeting they were told that if they did not stay on the Orange side of the barrier, their safety could not be guaranteed.
This warning was given in the knowledge that the media would tell the RUC, thus forcing the police to warn journalists to run for cover if the Orange crowd should breach the reinforced barbed wire barriers.
There were other psychological elements, such as the arrival of a digger with metal mesh covering the windscreen, and the warnings by unionist politicians that parades around the North could be diverted to Drumcree with up to 100,000 Orangemen on the march.
At a press conference yesterday, the Chief Constable said he had no option but to allow the parade to go through because of the threat to public order.
They were faced with the prospect of tens of thousands of Orangemen facing thousands of police and soldiers. The risk to life was so great that he felt it was necessary to allow the parade to go down the Garvaghy Road.
The decision was taken in circumstances where no accommodation could be reached between the Garvaghy residents and the Orangemen.
On Wednesday, the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, met the leaders of the four principal churches to discuss the impasse. There was no breakthrough, but the meeting was said to have been helpful.
The church leaders, for their part, expressed grave concern.
In the field at Drumcree, speculation increased throughout Wednesday night about a potential breakthrough. The Ulster Unionist camp gave hints to reporters of a breakthrough and a potential compromise with the Garvaghy residents' coalition.
The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, appeared to confirm this when he told the crowd that he saw light at the end of the tunnel and we are moving in the right direction".
But whatever happened on the unionist side, the residents were not at all involved in the decision to allow the parade to go through. The Orange Order refused to meet them.
Cardinal Daly met the residents on Wednesday night for an hour. Yesterday morning according to representative Mr Brendan Mac Cionnaith, the residents were invited by the church leaders to a meeting in a factory in Portadown at 9 a.m.
The chairman and another member of the residents' committee attended on the basis that there would be discussions with the Orange Order. There had been no agreement, but they thought they would finally get to meet the Orange Order and have a fruitful discussion.
Mr Mac Cionnaith said they waited for 21/2 hours in one room, with the Orange Order representatives in another and the church leaders in a third room. But no meeting took place. At 11.30 a.m. he got a call that the police had moved down the Garvaghy Road.
Mr Mac Cionnaith said no deal had been done and the police action amounted to a complete betrayal of trust.
Dr Robin Eames said afterwards that the church leaders had done their best to bring about a peaceful resolution, but had failed to bring about a meeting of both sides.
Residents say they find it particularly difficult that they had gone through so many meetings in the past year with the RUC, the churches, Craigavon Council, the SDLP, Sinn Fein, the Alliance Party and the British Labour Party's Dr Mo Mowlam. Still the Orange Order would not meet them, they said.
The Chief Constable said he made his decision at 11.45 a.m. yesterday. When it was pointed out that the RUC began to move down the Garvaghy road at 11 a.m., he said that a police officer had to have a few options up his sleeve.
Mob violence won out in the end. That was the real deal that was done," said one Catholic resident.