A late attempt to prevent this afternoon's contentious Orange Order Whiterock parade failed in Belfast High Court yesterday as a number of politicians urged Orange marchers and their supporters and nationalist protesters to act responsibly to ensure today passes off peacefully.
Serious disturbances erupted during last September's postponed Whiterock parade and there is concern that today's parade could again degenerate into violence.
Some behind-the-scenes contacts between nationalist and loyalist representatives were continuing yesterday evening, which could determine how the parade will unfold this afternoon, and also the strength of the PSNI security presence at the parade.
The hope is that nationalist and loyalist stewards will be able to manage the protest and the parade in such a manner that it will conclude without major incident. But it remained unclear last night whether eleventh-hour agreement for such marshalling could be reached.
The Parades Commission has allowed a parade of 50 Orangemen to pass through the Workman Avenue "peace line" gates from the loyalist Shankill area this afternoon on to the nationalist Springfield Road, where the Orangemen will then make their way to the Whiterock Orange hall. The main element of the parade will march on to the nationalist road through the former Mackies industrial site.
Seán Murray, chairman of the Springfield Road Residents' Action Group, said afterwards that he was disappointed by the ruling.
"We are opposed to the determination, particularly when it is set against the backdrop of the violence of last year. It is our belief that the Parades Commission has given in to loyalist violence."
Sinn Féin MP Martin McGuinness, who again led a party delegation in talks with the Parades Commission last night, said: "This march starts in a unionist area, diverts across a peace line into a Catholic area and then returns back into the unionist area. There is no logic behind this other than to cause offence and to dominate. It is also clear that this determination will discourage rather than encourage dialogue and makes accommodation all the more difficult," added Mr McGuinness.
North Belfast DUP MP Nigel Dodds said it remained a great disappointment that local nationalists opposed making the Springfield Road a shared space.
Meanwhile, David Burrows, former district master of the Orange Order in Portadown, who was centrally involved in many of the contentious Drumcree parades, has resigned from the order.
He is, however, to remain a member of the Parades Commission but will no longer be involved in discussions or decisions relating to parades by Portadown Orangemen. His resignation may wreck plans for legal action by Garvaghy Road residents to challenge his membership of the Parades Commission.
