THE marching season opened in Northern Ireland yesterday morning not with a bang, but with a gesture of conciliation. The Apprentice Boys parade on Belfast's Ormeau Road, which was a catalyst for violence and confrontation last year, passed off this time without incident.
The Ormeau Bridge, which marks the division between the nationalist and loyalist sections of the road, was again blocked off by the RUC.
However, instead of marching up to the police barrier and registering a protest, the Ballinafeigh Apprentice Boys simply wheeled to the left on to the Annadale Embankment, where a bus was waiting to take them to the main parade at Killyleagh, Co Down.
As the group of about 50 marchers and bandsmen turned away from the line of police LandRovers, they were jeered by some loyalist residents standing on the footpath. "You didn't walk down the road, you f---ing gave in to them, you might as well have sided with them", shouted one heckler.
A spokesman for the Apprentice Boys, Mr Tommy Cheevers, said he was not surprised at such reaction: "There are always those in our society, unfortunately, who are just bigots and can't see anything they have only small lives to live.
The majority of people had applauded them as they marched down the road. "Northern Ireland can't afford what happened last year to occur again", Mr Cheevers added. He called for "consideration, tolerance, fair mindedness" on both sides of the community. "That's all we ask for."
Asked if yesterday's parade had set the mood for the rest of the marching season, he said: "I would hope so. There's a lot of people throughout Northern Ireland who are coming forward and having discussions."
However, Miss Pauline Gilmore, a spokeswoman for Ormeau Residents Demand Equal Rights, criticised the Apprentice Boys for failing to make a protest: "There is some form of protest that is necessary. It is Protestant civil rights that matters."
She said the marchers should have taken the same stance as the Orange Order in similar situations, where the Orangemen had "handed a letter in, had a small protest and gone back to their hall". There would be a march for Protestant civil rights on the Ormeau Road on May 10th.
Mr Gerard Rice, of the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community (LOCC), which represents nationalist residents, welcomed the stance taken by the Apprentice Boys. "Nobody wants confrontation, nobody wants scenes of shops being looted or petrol bombs being thrown at the RUC. And, hopefully, if the other marching orders follow in their footsteps for the rest of the year, then we won't have Drumcrees and the damage that we saw done last year."
A local unionist councillor, Mr Michael McGimpsey, said it was unfortunate that the marchers had not at least delivered a letter of protest over being stopped at the bridge. "It passed off peacefully and that is to the good, but it doesn't solve anything. It's not a formula for the future."