Traffic in the bustling Home Counties market town of Por'ydoin was brought to a standstill today by a mass demonstration of at least thirteen placard-wielding folkies demanding permathread status for the Drumcree thread.

A spokesperson for the demonstrators said that, apart from enabling contributors to the thread to dress normally, permathread status would at last give mudcatters the parody of steam which was rightfully theirs. He also indicated that the thread is now the object of serious academic research in the US, and observed that, given the amount of university shite that Joyce fella was responsible for, there must be the makings of a good dozen PhD theses in the thread already. Permathread status would also enable the local economy to benefit from spinoff summer school business, he stressed, adding: "them crowd in the Free State have sewn up the trade in intense Yanks in peculiar clothes for far too long".

A PSNI spokesman confirmed that, thanks to the Force's new sensitivity training, the demonstration had passed off peacefully.