A contentious loyalist parade has been given permission to pass a nationalist area in north Belfast which has recently been a flashpoint for violence.
The Northern Ireland Parades Commission said a Royal Black Preceptory parade from Ligoniel could pass the Ardoyne shops where trouble occurred on July 12th and earlier in June. The parade will pass at about 8 a.m. on Saturday.
The commission had reviewed its decision after consulting Sinn Fein and residents' groups but yesterday said its determination would stand. The marchers will not be accompanied by a band or followers.
A local Sinn Fein councillor, Mr Eoin O Broin, said the parade should be banned. "There is no consistency in this decision when compared with their previous determination on the Apprentice Boys' march, which was banned from the same contentious route only weeks earlier," he said.
Mr O Broin said the community was being subjected to nightly attacks by loyalist paramilitaries, but he was hoping there would be no conflict if the parade went ahead.
Meanwhile, a number of paint bombs were thrown at the home of a Protestant community worker, Mr Mark Coulter, near where the parade will pass.
Cllr O Broin said: "If there's anybody from the nationalist community involved in these attacks who think they are furthering the interests of the community by these attacks then they're wrong."