FIRST MINISTER Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness led calls for a peaceful Twelfth of July amid concerns of street disturbances at the flashpoint Ardoyne shops in north Belfast tonight.
As the PSNI started a major security operation in an attempt to prevent serious clashes, Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness appealed for everyone to “take a step back” to ensure a calm day and night.
Tens of thousands of Orange Order members will participate in 18 big parades across Northern Ireland. They will march in Belfast and in towns such as Ballymena, Lisnaskea, Randalstown, Comber, Ballycastle and Rathfriland. Hundreds of bands and many thousands more observers and supporters of the Orange Order will watch the parades.
Eleventh night bonfires were set in dozens of locations throughout the North last night and this morning ahead of the parades.
Anxieties have risen about how the day will pass following the weekend violence in Ballyclare and in other parts of Co Antrim and in Co Derry.
The trouble flared when some loyalist flags were removed from an area close to a Catholic church in Ballyclare. Six police officers were injured during the disturbances. There was some surprise yesterday when PSNI Asst Chief Constable Alistair Finlay apologised for the manner in which the flags were removed, appearing to accept that protocols with local community activists on removing flags were not properly observed.
“I expressed my regret that they felt we had not handled that issue in the way they would have hoped and undertook to review that,” Mr Finlay said.
He emphasised, however, that the issue over flags did not excuse the violence. “There is no reason for people to steal their neighbours’ cars, torch them and somehow try to connect that back to a dispute with police about how flags were removed.”
Sinn Féin MLA for South Antrim Mitchel McLaughlin said people who raise flags outside Catholic churches to cause offence should not be offered apologies.
The Alliance Minister for Justice David Ford said police acted correctly and in line with protocols in removing the flags. The blame for the violence lay with those who caused the “fear and mayhem”.
The main focus today is on Ardoyne, where serious violence erupted in recent years, and in east Belfast where three weeks ago local Ulster Volunteer Force leaders orchestrated attacks on the nationalist Short Strand enclave.
A big security operation is being put in place to facilitate the return of the Orange Order feeder parade past the Ardoyne shops in north Belfast about 8pm today. Trouble following on from last year’s parade lasted for four days and there is concern there may be further trouble this evening. Those fears are heightened by anxiety that dissident republicans may seek to exploit the opportunities to stoke violence.
Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness also called for calm and restraint during the rest of the summer marching season.
“In recent weeks the eyes of the world have focused in on Northern Ireland for both all the right reasons and, unfortunately, all the wrong reasons,” said Mr Robinson. “We must not allow the progress that has been made to be thwarted by those who want to drag us back to the past.”
After visiting Ardoyne yesterday, Mr McGuinness said: “It is quite clear from my discussions with local residents in Ardoyne that they do not want to see any violence within this community tomorrow before, during or after the Orange parade.
“It is important that anybody from outside this community who is intent on travelling here tomorrow hears that message loud and clear.”
SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie condemned the weekend violence and called for “calm and common sense” in the coming days. “All those involved in parades and protest over the next few days must use their influence for positive and peaceful outcomes,” she said.
“It is important that those mindless individuals responsible for causing terror and mayhem on the streets are not given any outlets for their destructive intentions at this time of the year.”
