The Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition (GRRC) has voted to end its opposition to nationalists from outside Portadown joining the protest against the annual Drumcree Orange march in July.

The previous decision to keep the protest local, in an attempt to decrease local tensions, was called into question following last year's decision to force the Orange march down the Garvaghy Road against the local residents wishes and without dialogue. The resulting scenes of nationalists being beaten off the road were beamed around the world.

Following a packed local residents meeting on 5 May where 82% of residents backed the move, support is set to flood in from across Ireland, from America and from human rights organisations across Europe.

The GRRC said the change in tactics was due to the RUC ``coming into the area at the dead of night and beating people off the street''. Despite the move, the GRRC has pledged to continue with its attempts to open dialogue with the Orange Order.

GRRC spokesperson, Brendan MacCionnaith, has criticised the Orange Order over its planned No rally in the area on Thursday, the eve of the referendum. He said, ``they are clearly showing they are not a civil and religious but a political organisation by identifying themselves with the No camp.''

Garvaghy residents at Laytown meeting

``What can we do?'' asked a distressed listener after hearing the account of abuse and harassment experienced by the ordinary residents on the Garvaghy Road.

150 people attended a public meeting, organised by Kevin Barry Cumann, Sinn Féin, in Laytown last Thursday about the situation on Portadown's Garvaghy Road.

Breandan Mac Cionnaith, Independent Councillor, asked everyone to write to the Taoiseach and to the Prime Minister, requesting them to uphold the rights of residents and to be allowed to live and rear their families in equality and peace.

Joanna Tennyson and Aidan McCormack gave a graphic description of the everyday problems, harassment and intimidation of the people in the estate and of their great fear at the imminent prospect of a rerun of previous years' brutality.

``The march is not a 15 minute walk by Orangmen through our estate. There is a saturation by RUC and army for days prior to the march. People saw, on television last year, how we were beaten off our own street, how 6,000 residents were prevented by going to church to attend mass, on the pretext of letting Orangemen march up to their church''. The attendance were shocked to hear the ``reality of life'' in the besieged nationalist enclave, how they cannot go in safety into their own town, and how ten people have been killed in the town centre in recent years.