Four armed and masked Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) members paraded before a crowd of several hundred in a side-street off the Shankill Road on Saturday, the first such open display since the loyalist ceasefires. The men, dressed in black and wearing masks, carried two AK47 assault rifles and two machine pistols, one an American-manufactured Ingrams and the other possibly of eastern European origin. The weapons all looked new.
The four stood to attention for several minutes before a plaque on a gable wall in Disraeli Street, erected in memory of UVF man Brian Robinson, shot dead by the British army in September 1989. After orders from a fifth man in similar dress, they slipped into the crowd.
Several other men, again dressed in black uniforms with black woollen caps, laid wreaths at Robinson's memorial. After the armed men disappeared, the Shankill Protestant Boys marching band played Here Lies a Sol- dier before marching past.
Robinson, who was a member of the UVF's "B" Company and from the Shankill Road area, is a revered figure within the organisation. He was shot dead by an undercover British army unit as he was on his way to shoot a republican figure in Ardoyne. He is one of the few people in the North known to have been shot dead by a woman soldier.
During Saturday afternoon, the Shankill area had been largely sealed off while a parade of around 70 bands made its way around the area. Almost every band displayed some kind of UVF emblem. Although watched by several thousand people on the Shankill, the media largely ignored the event.
There was a very light RUC presence on the main roads leading into the Shankill. There were no police or soldiers near Disraeli Street when the armed display took place. Two surveillance helicopters which had monitored the early part of the parade had disappeared by 4 p.m. when the armed display occurred.
It was not clear yesterday what impact the display would have on the presence of members of the UVF's political wing at the Stormont talks.
It appears to go against the terms of the Mitchell Principles which govern entry to the talks. One of the principles says that all groups must renounce "any effort by others to use force, or threaten to use force . . ." They also call on parties to support the decommissioning of weapons.
However, the political wing of the movement, the Progressive Unionist Party, headed by Mr David Ervine, along with the Ulster Democratic Party (UDP), which is the political wing of the other loyalist paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), has been present at the talks since they were established, while entry to the IRA's political wing, Sinn Fein, was denied.
While the loyalist paramilitaries have ostensibly observed a ceasefire since October 1994, both the UVF and UDA have been involved in attacks on republicans and other violence.
The UDA is believed to have been responsible for murdering John Slane, a Catholic father of eight children who was shot dead in his home in west Belfast last March, apparently the victim of mistaken identity. Sources in the Shankill also say the UDA was responsible for firing shots into the home of a former UDA prisoner, Pastor Kenny McClinton, just over a week ago. Mr McClinton, who is seen as being sympathetic to the dissident loyalist figure Billy Wright, was forced to leave his home on the Shankill Road.
It was not clear at the weekend if the UVF display in the Shankill was meant as a signal about the organisation's wider intentions or if it was merely a local show of strength to commemorate a dead member.
However, sources close to the organisation's leadership say there is considerable disquiet about the fact that the British and Irish governments appear to be preparing for the early release of republican prisoners while there has been less obvious movement on the release of loyalists.
The UVF is angry about the treatment of two of its prisoners, William Graham and Denis McClean. Graham has served nine years and is chronically ill. He has had two operations to remove tumours from his brain and has suffered a severe stroke. McClean has served 10 years and is suffering from severe respiratory and circulatory problems as well as diabetes.
The announcement last week by the US State Department that it was cancelling deportation proceedings against IRA prisoners has also upset loyalists. They point out that several of their ex-members who served jail sentences for relatively minor offences have been refused visas to visit the US.