One of the most contentious loyalist parades in Northern Ireland's marching season passed off peacefully today despite passing a west Belfast sectarian falshpoint today.
Amid a massive security operation, Orange Order marchers walked along a stretch of the staunchly Catholic Springfield Road.
Last year the bitterly opposed march provoked riots - but today 50 nationalists staged a silent protest on the route.
The success raised hopes that the loyalist marching season might not be plunged into violence again this year.
Mr Frank McCoubrey, a west Belfast loyalist councillor, said: "It took five years to build this level of trust between two communities who said enough is enough.
"This sends out a message to the rest of Northern Ireland that if it can be done here on the Springfield Road, which has seen some of the most mindless violence anywhere in the Province, then it can be done elsewhere."
The Parades Commission had decided to let the Orangemen pass through the peace line at Workman Avenue despite appeals from residents and Sinn Féin.
But loyalist supporters were ordered to keep back while the marchers made their way up Springfield Road and returned back into Protestant territory.
With riot police blocking off the road to keep the bulk of nationalists back, the 50-strong delegation was allowed through in order to hold a peaceful demonstration.
As the Orange Order and loyalist bandsmen emerged through the steel barriers the residents held aloft a banner saying; "Orange: it's good to talk", in reference to the Orange Order's refusal to negotiate with the residents.
Within 20 minutes the parade had passed by without any serious trouble, in contrast to the situation 12 months ago when police were forced to deploy water cannons.
Mr Tom Hartley, a senior Sinn Féin councillor in west Belfast, praised the discipline of the crowd.
He said: "It was a peaceful protest and it reflected the consistency of the residents' approach in trying to solve this problem.
"But it is important that this pressure and this angst which is visited on these residents every year does not become and annual event.
"It's up the Parades Commission to insist that the Orange Order engages in dialogue so we can find a resolution through talking."
Before the march, British army bomb disposal experts had to make safe a suspicious object on the route of the parade. Police later described the package as "an elaborate hoax", deliberately planted to cause disruption.
PA