POLICE held back protesters yesterday as an Orange Order parade passed
through a Roman Catholic flashpoint in Belfast.
There were fears of trouble on the nationalist Lower Ormeau Road,
where loyalists shot dead five Roman Catholics at a betting shop in
February, but the Protestant march to join up with a big rally in the
city passed off quietly.
The parade, which had seen trouble in previous years, went ahead
despite objections by residents in the area. About 40 gathered on
footpaths, but were kept back by police.
The Orangemen agreed to take a different route when the rally broke up
last night.
Mrs Dolores Rea, who led the protesters, said: ''We never want them
back here again. The people of this area are 100% against them.
''The Orange Order has no control over the hangers-on who follow these
bands and parades, and these are the people who cause most of the
trouble.''
Police and troops were out in force as up to 100,000 people took part
in 18 different events to mark the 302nd anniversary of the Battle of
the Boyne.
Earlier, 11 police officers were injured in disturbances at a bonfire
in Downpatrick, County Down. One was detained in hospital. Seven people
were arrested.
The biggest of the Orange Order demonstrations was in Belfast, where
the leader of the Unionist Party, James Molyneaux, said the talks
process aimed at reaching a political settlement should continue over
the summer.
He told Orangemen the momentum created in recent weeks should not be
jeopardised by holidays or endless dissertations on political
philosophy.
The negotiations are due to resume at Stormont Castle, Belfast,
tomorrow, when Irish Ministers meet Northern Ireland party leaders.
Mr Molyneaux said: ''If we relax now, who can blame cynics for
asserting that talks have become annual events to be terminated only
when the sun exhausts its thermal energy some six billion years from
now?''
East Londonderry Unionist MP William Ross emphasised the need to press
ahead and reach a conclusion.
He said: ''The practical solutions are clear to everyone in
Government, and neither the territorial ambitions of Irish
Republicanism, nor the carefully planned strategy of violence by the
IRA, nor the mixture of honey and acid from constitutional republicans,
should be permitted to delay a workable governance for Ulster.''
Meanwhile, a full-time private in the new Royal Irish Regiment was
charged with murdering a teenager shot in the head near a bonfire in
North Belfast. The city's Magistrates' Court was told that when charged,
35-year-old Alan Frederick O'Leary replied: No.
Mr O'Leary, whose address was given as Drumad Barracks, Armagh, was
remanded in custody until July 31, but his solicitor told the court he
would be making a High Court bail application.
Mr O'Leary is accused of murdering James Bradin, 19, a Protestant,
from Joanmount Gardens, who was shot in the head after an argument near
a bonfire early on Sunday. Police said the killing was non-sectarian,
and not related to any act of terrorism.
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