Unionist politicians react to loyalist violence

DUP leader Ian Paisley has blamed the Parades Commission "for the mess that has been created" over the weekend.

Dr Paisley had been due to address Orangemen on Saturday following the Whiterock Parade however security measures prevented Order members from reaching Woodvale Park where the North Antrim MP was due to make an address.

"Orangemen have been treated shamefully by the Parades Commission," Dr Paisley said. "The commission treated elected representatives with contempt by its refusal to even call us to put our case. We were refused the opportunity to give greater detail.

"The government has done a deal with the IRA and they are determined not to do anything to upset republicans. I am convinced that a shoddy deal between the government and the IRA is now in place and there will soon be an attempt to make people believe that the IRA is peaceful and democratic and that they have given up all their arms. We will have none of it."

Despite Dr Paisley's call for "all law abiding people to remain calm" hundreds of loyalists, alongside numerous Orangemen, confronted police and army personnel in serious civil disorder that led to 14 arrests and numerous injuries to police officers.

Meanwhile, Ulster Unionist Party leader Sir Reg Empey has said that the weekend violence was a throwback to the 1970s.

"Firstly, we must state clearly that whatever reasons may be advanced for the causes of what has happened, there is no excuse for shootings, blast and petrol bomb attacks," the east Belfast MLA said. "Secondly we must analyse what went wrong. Why did communities that are normally peaceful and law-abiding erupt in such an astonishing way?

"The weekend's violence was much more deep seated than many are perhaps prepared to accept. I warned during the week that Loyalist communities were now suffering more deprivation, more educational underachievement and greater unemployment than ever before.

"I do not believe that the violence was solely related to the Whiterock parade alone. Whiterock became a catalyst for what happened," Sir Reg concluded.

(MB/SP)