Tomorrow's Drumcree parade and Tuesday's Twelfth of July marches are to proceed as normal, notwithstanding appeals from the SDLP for the Orange Order to at least cancel its contentious parades in the wake of the London bombings.
The Orange Order said there was considerable discussion within the organisation about what was the appropriate course to take after the attacks on London.
The comments from British prime minister Tony Blair and Sir Ian Blair, commissioner of the London Metropolitan Police that people should act normally in defiance of the bombers convinced the order all the parades should go ahead, a spokesman for the order said yesterday.
"Organisers of individual parades will be taking action to ensure the parades take place in a dignified manner as a mark of respect for the victims of the bombings.
"I expect that there will be minutes of silence observed at some or all of the parades," he added.
There is always an unpredictability factor over Drumcree, but the PSNI hopes and expects that tomorrow's parade will pass off peacefully. Security is scaled down again this year.
The main concern centres on Tuesday night's return Orange Order feeder parade past the Ardoyne shops in north Belfast where serious trouble erupted last year. That the Orange Order is determined to proceed with this parade continues to cause community anxieties.
Nationalist residents are planning to stage a protest against the return parade. Sinn Féin North Belfast Assembly member Gerry Kelly will attend a public meeting in Belfast tomorrow night to discuss the issue.
SDLP leader Mark Durkan appealed for peace over the coming days. He called on the marching orders not to pass through contentious areas out of respect for the dead in London and asked residents not to sustain protests if they "nonetheless march where they are not wanted".
"Following the carnage in London, it is even more important that we have a peaceful marching season. At a time when streets will be filled with funerals and grief in London, it would show no respect if our streets were filled with rioting and strife," he said.
"That is why I am calling on the marching orders not to walk through contentious areas over the 12th. And it is why I am calling on residents not to sustain protests if the marching orders show no respect and do so," added Mr Durkan.
Orangemen are again banned by the Parades Commission from parading down the nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown from Drumcree tomorrow afternoon. The last time they did so was 1997.
PSNI chief supt Drew Harris said police were optimistic about this year's Drumcree, although they were in a position to apply additional resources if required.
"This year we plan to scale down the physical security measures at Drumcree even more than last year and I believe that this will be noticeable to most people," he said.
Martin Wall adds: Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said yesterday that he believed the IRA statement on its future intentions would not come in the week ahead, but hoped that it would be released before the end of the month.
Speaking to reporters yesterday, Mr Ahern said that the coming week was "a difficult week" as it was the key week of the marching season.
"I hope and pray that everybody will be responsible in that and particularly when we see what happened in London, people should try to make sure that we have no troubles anywhere on this island," he said.
The Taoiseach said that hopefully after next week there would be progress on the IRA statement.
