Contentious parade gets under way
Saturday, 24 June 2006, 14:22 GMT 15:22 UK
A contentious Orange Order parade is under way in west Belfast.
Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain was among those who appealed for calm ahead of the Whiterock parade, which last year was followed by rioting.
One lodge is allowed onto the mainly nationalist Springfield Road via Workman Avenue, with the main parade going through a former factory site.
Mr Hain paid tribute to the work of the Parades Commission in seeking to promote local agreements on marches.
He said last year’s Whiterock parade violence had “damaged” Northern Ireland’s reputation.
“It’s important that we do not see a repeat of the awful scenes last year which did so much damage, both to the local area and also to Northern Ireland’s image,” he said.
‘New era’
“It’s important that we have a new era in parades in which people can exercise their traditional and cultural rights, but do so in a way that does not seek to intimidate or infringe on the rights and interests of the other communities.”
On Friday, Clonard residents were refused leave at the High Court to apply for a judicial review of the Parades Commission’s ruling the Whiterock parade.
The Order has promised to abide by the commission’s restrictions.
On Thursday, members of the Orange Order’s number nine district “overwhelmingly but reluctantly” backed a reduction in the number of marchers.
The cost of policing the Whiterock parade last year and subsequent rioting in a number of loyalist areas was estimated at £3m by the PSNI.
Police officers were attacked with petrol bombs and blast bombs, as well as live rounds during the trouble.
Last year, the Orange Order delayed the parade until September in protest after the commission re-routed the entire parade through the former Mackies factory site instead of allowing it through Workman Avenue.
The government-appointed Parades Commission was set up in 1997 to make decisions on whether controversial parades should be restricted.
