The ugly scenes of the past few nights are behind us now. An uneasy peace has resumed in Portadown. The followers of Sam McAutry, the self-proclaimed High Priest Of Orangery have closed ranks around their now-elusive leader and the old guard who stood behind his rival, the late Isaac McKittery, now face the future with uncertainty.

But there was a veiled hint of more trouble to come in the graveside panegyric delivered over the corpse of McKittery by his great friend in life, Gordy McMordy, now in hiding – a wanted man. McMordy obviously suspects that the schism which the events of the past few days has opened up has been engineered by forces outside the Order …

"The Defenders of this Realm have worked well in secret and in the open. They think that they have pacified the orange. They think that they have purchased half of us and intimidated the other half. They think that they have foreseen everything, think that they have provided against everything; but the fools, the fools, the fools!---they have left us our orangeman dead, and while Ulster holds these graves, Ulster unfree shall never be at peace. "

We here at "the centre that cannot hold, but must" hold our breaths and pray to our Gods that commonsense will prevail.