Updated on
Summary 20 police were hurt in violence following rival Protestant and Catholic marches through Belfast.
Six people were arrested as the trouble flared Thursday in the Catholic Ardoyne district of the Northern Irish capital.Hundreds of riot police were attacked with bricks and petrol bombs and a car was torched in the northern district, but their injuries were not thought to be serious and none was hit by the shots fired.The violence came after a small group of Protestant marchers from the Orange Order, escorted by police, peacefully passed through the Ardoyne in an annual ritual.A planned counter-parade by the Greater Ardoyne Residents Collective followed, and violence flared as Protestant and Catholic youths traded insults across police lines as violence flared.Police fired six plastic bullets and used water cannon to quell the disturbances.The July 12 parade is the culmination of the Orange Orders marching season, and is usually accompanied by violence. The day is a public holiday in Northern Ireland.The march marks the Protestant King William IIIs victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 over the deposed Catholic king James II.The marchers like to stick to traditional routes but there are often clashes as they sometimes pass through what have now become Catholic areas. There has been annual trouble at the Ardoyne flashpoint for more than a decade.The Parades Commission, which was established to adjudicate on contentious marches, came in for criticism from politicians on both sides.I am angry that we have these three days of annual madness where it seems that everybody thinks the peacekeepers are a legitimate target, said Police Assistant Chief Constable Will Kerr.We will be making a significant number of arrests, as we did last year, over the course of the next weeks and months to make sure that people are placed before the courts and answer for their decisions.Cars were also set alight and petrol bombs thrown in Northern Irelands second city Londonderry.
