Breandan MacCionnaith is a member of the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition which opposed the Orange march. "Diumcree didn't teach nationalists anything, it just reinforced what we already knew. We have been under threat in Portadown since it was built. In every decade from the 1820s, there has been major intimidation.
"In 1867, for example, Orange bands gathered at St Patrick's Church in William Street. They attacked worshippers and knocked a priest unconscious. So attacks on small Catholic communities aren't new.
"Drumcree was just another opportunity for unionists to stamp their supremacy on nationalists in Portadown. They closed all the businesses in the town centre and many local factories. Masked loyalists with AK47s stood at roadblocks.
"An innocent Catholic taxi-driver, Michael McGoldrick, was shot dead a few miles away in Lurgan. Unionists were effectively telling us that we live here only on sufferance. But they can't continue to treat the nationalist community in an unjust, undemocratic and unequal manner.
"Just as Charles Dickens's Scrooge was confronted by the Spirit of Christmas Past, so the spirit of Drumcree has come back to haunt the Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble. In a recent trip to the US, he faced very difficult questions over his actions.
"Rather than preparing for Drumcree Mark III in 1997, unionists should begin to acknowledge that our community has rights which must be upheld and respected.
Pauline Campbell is a resident of the Garvaghy Road area who protested against the Orange march. "I'm not optimistic about the future at all after Drumcree. Unionists sent a political message to the British government that no matter what other people do for the peace process, they won't budge an inch. If they do it over a march, they will do it over a political settlement.
"Drumcree shattered the myth that the RUC is an impartial force and the British government is just an arbiter between two warring tribes. A small Catholic community of around 1,500 families was under siege for five, days. We couldn't get into our own town centre because of Loyalist roadblocks. We were confined to using local shops and we worried that they'd run out of food. But the Orangemen were well fed and could go where they wanted.
"We couldn't leave our own areas, we couldn't go to Mass, but they could drive up and down the roads in their cars waving Union Jacks and Orange sashes. The Orange Order ran a radio station from Drumcree day and night which belted out intimidatory messages to us.
"It was ordinary Catholics who suffered during Drumcree. Women, children and old people were the most vulnerable. No one stood up for our rights. The British government bowed to Trimble, Paisley and the Orange Order. If that bunch say `jump', Britain says `how high'.
"Loyalists closed Belfast port, the airports and held the entire community to ransom during Drumcree. They got their way in the end. There is no reason to believe that things will be any different in the coming year."
Noel Patton is a district master of the Orange Order and a member of its militant faction, the Spirit of Drumcree group. "I've a garden centre in Dungannon and nationalists used to make up about 40 per cent of my customers. But since I took part in Drumcree, most have boycotted my business. I've lost a lot of trade - but I'm not sorry about Drumcree - you have to stand up for your principles and pay the price, whatever it is.
"Drumcree was culturally very important for the Protestant community. A great sense of camaraderie developed. Women phoned up my home offering to make sandwiches and pastry for the Orangemen. Ties were strengthened across the generations. Sons came with their fathers and grandfathers. I was proud that my own two sons, who are 11 and 15, were with me.
"Drumcree was also important in showing Protestant unity across Northern Ireland. The protest started in Portadown, Co Armagh, but it spread across the entire country. Northern Ireland was brought to a standstill and when it looked like the police couldn't cope, the authorities backed down and we secured another victory.
"We did it in 1995 and 1996 and I think Drumcree could happen again in 1997. if the new RUC Chief Constable, Ronnie Flanagan, alienates Protestants by trying to woo the nationalist community, we will be in a very dangerous position.
"The right to march is fundamental for Protestants, it is one of the only ways we express our cultural identity. Nationalists have their language, music and Gaelic games. No one tries to curtail their freedom of expression. I would be very concerned indeed if there are more attempts to interfere with our rights next year."
Gary Barr (22), and a native of Portadown, is an accountancy student at Queen's and a member of the Young Unionists. "Drumcree was of great symbolic importance for the unionist community. Our people have had to endure countless attacks from republicans, with a weak British government tending to capitulate every time. Drumcree was about saying `enough is enough'.
"Marching down the Garvaghy Road wasn't a major issue in itself but it showed that we couldn't be pushed any more by anybody. Community relations in Portadown have worsened since Drumcree. Protestant school buses have been stoned on the Garvaghy Road and kids have rioted. It has been the same all over Northern Ireland.
"I don't think that the Orange Order is responsible for that. It had no choice but to stand up for its rights. It couldn't walk away and hand republicans yet another unionist defeat.
"The order in Portadown has been revitalised by Drumcree. There has been a big surge in membership because young people see that it has some power now. The new members are a lot more hardline than the older ones. There does not seem to be much chance of a solution for 1997. Things could be an awful lot worse in Drumcree next year.