A deal to sign a player who made controversial remarks about the Orange Order to Poratdown FC has fallen through.
In a statement posted on its Twitter page last night the soccer club said the deal to sign the 27-year-old Dubliner Joe Gorman had "not been concluded".
On Saturday the Portadown announced that Mr Gorman had joined the club from Galway Utd.
It Tweeted: "Portadown Football Club is delighted to announce the signing of 27-year-old Irish defender Joe Gorman."
The move sparked an angry response from Portadown supporters after it emerged that Mr Gorman appeared to make anti-Orange Order comments on social media in 2014.
The Twitter post was made after TV personality Ross Kemp attended an Orange Order parade while making a documentary in the north.
The Dublin native later Tweeted: “Ross Kemp in Belfast talking about the Troubles.
"Wouldn’t you just love to open up on all them Orangemen.”
At the time Mr Gorman was a youth team footballer at the Scottish club Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
He was later suspended by the club.
In response to the signing one angry Portadown fan later Tweeted: "Turn round and go back home. What kind of signing is this? Absolutely ridiculous call - who sanctioned this?"
Mr Gorman had been expected to make a statement on social media yesterday.
Early yesterday the club indicted that Mr Gorman would be expected to play.
However, Portadown later issued a short statement through its own Twitter account announcing the transfer deal had been halted.
It read: "Update on Joe Gorman signing. After further discussions this deal has not been concluded.
"We wish Joe all the best for his future career."
Some supporters last night welcomed news that the deal was off.
One post on the club's Twitter feed read: "Well done Portadown for showing you have a have few decent principles and a bit of backbone."
In 2017 hundreds of Orangemen held an open air service at Shamrock Park, the home of Portadown FC, to mark the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.
The town of Portadown was at the centre of the bitter Drumcree parading dispute in the 1990s when residents in the majority nationalist Garvaghy Road area opposed the Orange Order marching through the district.
