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.