Security is expected to be high in Portadown, Co Armagh, this afternoon as members of the Orange Order take part in the first major rally in the run-up to this year's annual Drumcree church parade on July 9th.
Several thousand Orangemen and up to 20 bands are expected in this afternoon's parade, which will leave Portadown town centre after lunchtime.
The parade will make its way to a rally at Drumcree Hill, passing the flashpoint Craigwell Avenue and Obins Street areas. It will return to Portadown by the same route and must disperse by 6.30 p.m.
This week Portadown Orange District placed advertisements in newspapers across the North inviting Orangemen and their supporters to this afternoon's march. The advertisements said the object of the parade was to "highlight the ongoing repression of civil and religious liberties by the Parades Commission towards the Protestant community in Northern Ireland".
Meanwhile, the Garvaghy Residents' Coalition has accused Orangemen of trying to heighten tension before two Drumcree parades, scheduled for July 2nd and 9th.
However, tensions within Portadown's Protestant community have increased significantly in the last 48 hours following the removal of a "loyalist vantage point" at the Corcrain estate close to the nationalist Obins Street area on Thursday.
Police and soldiers were drafted into the area after angry loyalists forced a firm of Catholic contractors to stop work shortly after they began demolishing a disused railway bridge on the edge of the Corcrain estate.
Later, RUC officers in full riot gear sealed off the area, enabling British army soldiers to clear away rubble and debris.