SEVERAL people were arrested in Derry yesterday morning following nationalist rioting in the city centre. The trouble flared after the Apprentice Boys' parade had passed without major incident.
About 200 nationalists attacked the RUC in various parts of the city centre on Saturday night and early yesterday morning. Police said 18 people were arrested and charged with public order offences.
The crowd attacked the RUC with stones, bottles and petrol bombs. The Strand Road RUC station was also petrol bombed and several premises had windows broken and had minor scorch damage.
Vehicles, including two buses were burned during the rioting. The rioters, many wearing masks also tried to burn the war memorial at the Diamond, close to the Apprentice Boys' memorial hall.
The local RUC divisional commander, Supt Joe McKeever, condemned the violence. "I am particularly saddened that given the efforts by so many local people to ensure the community was free from violence this weekend that a minority, for whatever reason, felt the need to attack police and damage property," he said yesterday.
"Looking at the deliberate damage to the war memorial I can only say that I feel a total sense of revulsion for those who perpetrated that damage," he added. The RUC would leave no stone unturned" in apprehending those responsible.
And he said: "To those who tried so hard to maintain the peace in this city this weekend, I am deeply grateful." Mr Martin McGuinness, the Sinn Fein ardchomhairle member, said the rioting was a response to the violence in Dunloy, Co Antrim, on Saturday night when Apprentice Boys and bandsmen tried to parade through the predominantly nationalist town.
Mr McGuinness said he and other Sinn Fein members in Derry worked until 5 a.m. yesterday to restore order.
There was also minor trouble in the city involving loyalists earlier in the day during the Apprentice Boys' parade. About two dozen loyalists detached themselves from the main parade to hurl stones and bottles at police, journalists and camera crews, beside the Apprentice Boys' memorial hall near Derry's walls, overlooking the Bogside.
Nationalists from the Bogside section of the walls responded in kind. Police arrested seven loyalists. One photographer suffered cuts and bleeding after he was hit by a bottle.
There was also some trouble during the parade when a few loyalists and nationalists confronted each other near the new Foyleside Shopping centre in the city centre. A woman shopper had her head badly cut when she was hit by a bottle.
Despite intermittent skirmishing in the city, the main parade of about 15,000 Apprentice Boys passed off relatively peacefully.
There was also a stand off between nationalists and police at Butcher Gate, which leads into the Bogside. Several hundred nationalists converged on the gate when the RUC closed it off by manoeuvring two Land Rovers back to back.
The situation was calmed following the intervention of Mr McGuinness, the former SDLP chairman, Mr Mark Durkan, and Mr Donncha Mac Niallais, spokesman for the Bogside Residents Group.
The Land Rovers were removed and while the crowd remained at the gate for over two hours facing the RUC behind BRG and Sinn Fein stewards there was no trouble.
