Nationalist rally interrupted in north Belfast

A short-lived loyalist protest in north Belfast interrupted a major nationalist rally at the weekend commemorating the 20th anniversary of the hunger strikes.

The protest, which involved about 100 loyalists, temporarily blocked off the Ligoniel Road in north Belfast, on Sunday August 12, preventing the Wolfe Tone Flute band from joining the commemoration.

Following police intervention, a stand off took place between the RUC and loyalists, which only lasted for 20 minutes.

A Sinn Fein spokesman has claimed the loyalists had tried to prevent people from attending a hunger strike commemoration march in the mainly nationalist Ardoyne area.

He said local people believed the protest was to prevent them getting out of Ligoniel and to the march in Ardoyne.

Yesterday, RUC police officers prevented the Ligoniel Walker Club of the Apprentice Boys of Derry from driving their bus down the Crumlin Road past the Ardoyne shops because it constituted a parade, and breached a ruling by the Parades Commission.

The club had been prevented by the Commission from marching through the area and had tried in vain to broker a last minute compromise to use their bus.

The Apprentice Boys have subsequently vowed to seek a judicial review into the decision to prevent them from travelling through the area to get to their main parade in Londonderry.

After a stand-off which lasted six and a half hour on Sunday, Apprentice Boys representative Tommy Cheevers branded the Parades Commission a “farce”.

Meanwhile, five people have been arrested following rioting in Ballymena in County Antrim.

Around 60 people threw stones and paint bombs at police in the Fisherwick Gardens area on Saturday night in what the RUC described as “major public disorder”.

The trouble, which started around 10pm, flared after a bonfire was started in the estate. Seven petrol bombs were recovered and five people were arrested for public disorder. (AMcE)