A clean-up operation is taking place in north Belfast today after major disturbances following an Orange Order parade yesterday.
Violence flared in the Ardoyne area after loyalist supporters of the Orange Order passed the nationalist area. Police in the North say 25 officers were injured in the disturbances.
Mr Gerry Kelly of Sinn Féin
The presence of the loyalist group of some 300 people seemed to contravene a Parades Commission ruling that only marchers be allowed use the route to return to Ligoniel and Ballysillan.
But the Orange Order contended that a judge, in a judicial review of the parade, last week ruled that the Parades Commission could have no effective jurisdiction over what supporters of the Orangemen could do.
The trouble followed a largely peaceful Twelfth of July across the North.
Nationalists ignored the restraining efforts of senior Provisional republicans, including Sinn Féin's Mr Gerry Kelly. An angry Mr Kelly blamed the police and British government for the trouble, by allowing the loyalist supporters through the area.
"You can't blame this crowd," he said. "This crowd was attacked by loyalists, by whoever was on the other side of the barrier. The whole machine was set up to force an anti-Catholic parade - and, frankly, drunken louts - through this area."
Assistant Chief Constable Duncan McCausland, said in a statement his officers had responded "appropriately and proportionally" to the trouble.
Metals screens 15 feet high separated the Orangemen from about 3,000 protesting nationalists. Several hundred police and soldiers in riot gear separated the two sides as the Orangemen marched past the shops.
Some nationalists fired golf balls, stones and bottles over the barrier while loyalists returned fire. Five minutes later, when the Orange supporters were pushed past, there was a further, more serious exchange of missiles.
A police spokesman said today: "The parade reached the Ardoyne shop fronts area of north Belfast shortly after 9 p.m. On a number of occasions missiles were thrown at marchers and those associated with the parade by protesters.
"Serious disorder by protesters followed after the passing of the parade and supporters, when army personnel were attacked by protesters on Ardoyne road," he added. PSNI officers were also attacked at Brompton Park, where a water cannon was used by police.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, described the rioting in the Ardoyne area as "regrettable, distressing and disappointing.
"I know that considerable efforts had been made in the run-up to the march to defuse tensions in the area and to try and avoid such trouble," he said. "Officials remained in contact with the communities involved throughout this process. Nevertheless, it is clear that there would have been even greater violence had it not been for the restraining influence of community and political leaders on the ground."
SDLP leader, Mr Mark Durkan said the Parades Commission had been undermined "and put in a difficult position in the way in which decisions were taken yesterday."
Buses carrying Orangemen back from parades in the North were reportedly stoned by crowds in counties Antrim and Derry last night.
Windows were smashed on a vehicle carrying marchers past the Rathenraw estate in Antrim town.
In the second attack, Democratic Unionist PartyAssembly man Mr William Hay claimed a bus carrying Orangemen was targeted in the village of Greysteel.
Police were attacked in Derry where petrol bombs were thrown at them in the Fahan Street area between 7.30 p.m. and 11.30 p.m. A total of nine petrol bombs were thrown, police said.
A number of petrol bombs were seized in Antrim last night outside the Rathenraw Estate. Police seized the petrol bombs after they were attacked attempting to remove a road barricade. Two men were arrested.
