THE SINN Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has described nationalist-orchestrated violence after the Apprentice Boys annual parade in Derry on Saturday as sectarian and contrary to the spirit of Irish republicanism.
Traders in Derry estimate that they lost over £300,000 in business during the parade through the city centre on Saturday.
Shoppers stayed away from the city centre and many business premises were either closed for the day or closed early. As a result, the commercial heart of Derry was all but deserted with the exception of 12,000 Apprentice Boys and over 500 police officers.
During disturbances in the Bogside area of the city after the parade had ended, one pipe bomb exploded beside a PSNI Land Rover close to Free Derry Wall and dozens of petrol bombs were thrown at police vehicles.
Some of the petrol bombs contained sugar to enable the petrol to stick on impact.
Several vehicles were also hijacked and set on fire, one of them belonging to a woman who together with her young daughter was bundled from her car at Creggan Street by masked youths.
A small crowd of masked youths numbering less than 20, many of them young teenagers, threw stones at police officers on parade security duty at Fahan Street between the city centre and the Bogside.
During the parade, there were minor scuffles between police officers and about 50 men who took part in a dissident republican protest in Shipquay Street, less than 30m from the parade as it passed through the Diamond.
The disturbances were, however, of a lesser scale than anticipated. The hundreds of police officers, many of whom were drafted into Derry from regions across the North, mounted what they called Operation Exposure.
PSNI officers erected signs along the route of the parade which stated “If you engage in disorder you will be identified, arrested and prosecuted”.
Mr McGuinness said the violence was totally unacceptable.
Referring to attacks on the Apprentice Boys’ Memorial Hall, he said they “were motivated entirely by sectarianism and whoever carried them out should know that such behaviour goes against everything about Irish republicanism”.
“The vast majority of people in Derry want to get on with the job of moving this city forward. Those behind last night’s violence seem to be wedded to an entirely different agenda,” added Mr McGuinness.
Local SDLP Assembly member Mark H Durkan said the violence was disgraceful and that the rioters were destroying their own community. “If those responsible think they are defenders of their community, they should take a look at the destruction they have caused to their community and ask just what has this achieved,” he said.