The "Tour of the North", a major event in the Orange marching calendar, has passed off without major incident, although there was concern about some feeder parades returning home later in the night.
There were, however, a few minor clashes when nationalists began throwing bricks and bottles at marchers near the Duncairn Garden intersection. Those walking in the parade tried to avoid being hit, causing a section of the convoy to disperse temporarily. Parts of north Belfast were sealed off by a heavy security force presence, especially around the Duncairn Gardens/North Queen Street interfaces. Sinn Féin criticised the large PSNI and British army contingent made available for the parade.
The party's north Belfast MLA, Mr Gerry Kelly, said a construction site at Hillman Street had been forced to close for the day due to the heavy police presence, slowing progress on a housing development.
"There is only one reason for this move. It is to accommodate loyalism and to force an anti-Catholic parade through a Catholic area. This is an absolutely ludicrous situation and is the wrong thing to do," he said.
Mr Kelly said the increased police presence would not only raise tensions in an already tense area but "completely undermine the efforts of local community and political representatives who have been working hard to keep interface tensions down".
Earlier in the week the Parades Commission imposed restrictions on the march, which takes alternating routes in even and uneven years. The route taken in even-numbered years is the more controversial one as it passes through mainly nationalist areas like the Cliftonville Road and parts of the Antrim Road.