Orange marches raise security fears

Security is tight in Portadown tonight where up to 8000 Orangemen are expected to gather for a series of marches. Nationalist community leaders and representatives from the Orange Order have both appealed for calm. The Independent Parades Commission gave the go-ahead to marches in the town centre, at Drumcree Church, at Corcrain Orange Hall and another at the lower end of the nationalist Garvaghy Road. It is feared that trouble could erupt as the parades come a week after a loyalist pipe bomb killed Portadown grandmother Elizabeth O'Neill in her home.