(22 Jun 1996) English/Nat
Roman Catholic protesters in Northern Ireland have clashed with police as they tried to block a parade through Belfast by Protestant Orangemen.
Several people were reportedly injured, including leading Sinn Fein member Gerry Kelly.
Earlier, police had overruled objections by residents in the predominantly Catholic area of Belfast and allowed the parade to go ahead.
It was a sit-down protest that sparked the clashes between Republican Roman Catholics and the police Friday.
The protesters started assembling at the junction of Cliftonville Road and Antrim Road in north Belfast several hours before the planned march by Protestant Orangemen.
But their plans to disrupt the march were scotched by riot police who moved in on the protesters and forcibly removed them.
Many demonstrators were arrested and a number were reportedly injured, including leading Sinn Fein member Gerry Kelly.
Around 15-hundred police officers - many in riot gear - were on duty to try to keep the peace.
But they became targets themselves - protesters chucked bricks and bottles at police armoured cars meant to separate the angry locals from the marchers.
The Orangemen -- the name given to Ireland's main Protestant fraternal order -- congregated at the Orange County Hall later in the evening to begin their march.
They were undeterred by pleas not to march through predominantly Catholic neighbourhoods.
SOUNDBITE:
I think we have to keep our traditional parades going because as you can see it's happening all over this province since the so-called peace come in a couple of years ago. There hasn't been peace because what they're doing now is trying to put the Protestant culture off the road.
SUPER CAPTION: Robert Saulters, Belfast County Grand Master
Each summer, the marches that culminate in the big Orangemen parade on 12 July spark sectarian rumblings.
The parades take the Protestants through the heart of a number of Catholic neighbourhoods.
And for the Catholic residents, the marches underscore a sense of second-class citizenship in the Protestant-majority province.
SOUNDBITE:
The Orange Order seems a sectarian organisation, it's an anti-Catholic organisation and it's going to be marching through a Catholic district. Nobody knows who gave these people the God-given right to do this. Our communities are going to be under siege, people are going to be barricaded in their houses, they let these outsiders come and march there. We just don't accept that it's necessary.
SUPER CAPTION: John Flemming, spokesperson for the Cliftonville-Antrim Road Concerned Residents Association
This year, police had overruled objections by Catholic residents and allowed Friday's march to go ahead.
And despite the skirmishes, the Orangemen were able to complete their march along their customary route.
Protestant supporters of all ages lined the road - but the pall of violence hung heavy in the background.
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