THREE RUC officers were shot and injured in north Belfast early this morning. Two officers were wounded in an incident at Ardoyne. Another officer was injured in a shooting incident at the New Lodge Road.
The men are the first police officers to be shot in the North since the IRA ceasefire was declared in 1994. The shootings came just hours before 80,000 Orangemen will take to the streets to commemorate the Twelfth of July.
The first incident happened at 1.45 a.m. on the nationalist Ardoyne Avenue, the second 10 minutes later in the New Lodge. A spokesman for the RUC said that the injured officers had been taken to hospital.
There were serious disturbances throughout nationalist areas of Belfast last night and early today. Crowds hurled firebombs at RUC patrols and the RUC responded, firing plastic bullets at the demonstrators.
The disturbances followed widespread nationalist anger at the imposed outcome of the Drumcree stand off.
Trouble also flared in Derry early today. Up to a thousand people were involved in rioting in the city. British troops were called in at about 1.30 a.m. to support the RUC. A number of vehicles were hijacked and set ablaze. In Armagh a Catholic man was seriously injured when he was knocked down by an RUC Land Rover.
The tiny nationalist enclave of lower Ormeau in Belfast was saturated last night by a huge force of British troops and RUC officers, many already in riot gear, in anticipation of trouble this morning when an Orange parade is due to pass through before 9 ad.in.
A senior RUC officer said last night a decision on the route of the march would be made this morning.
The Catholic Primate, Cardinal Cahal Daly, said in a statement yesterday it has been a black day in the history of Northern Ireland". The state had been seen to capitulate before lawless violence and the threat of violence.
The decision to force the parade through was wrong and the consequences could be calamitous. There was widespread feeling among Portadown nationalists that the Garvaghy residents Were "set up", he said. "They feel betrayed. It would be hard for them to feel otherwise."
The Taoiseach last night had a 25 minute telephone conversation with the British Prime Minister, which a Government spokesman described as "difficult and frank". Mr Bruton told Mr Major there was widespread anger and deep concern in Ireland about the decision to allow the march down the Garvaghy Road.
The joint British army RUC operation in Belfast last night was launched IS hours before the Orange parade was scheduled to begin. It immediately followed the Belfast High Court decision not to allow lower Ormeau residents to proceed with their legal action to stop Orangemen marching down the road this morning.
There were ugly scenes as hundreds of RUC and army vehicles sealed off all side streets to the area, denying access to vehicles and to non residents. The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, was refused entry to the Lower Ormeau, but later admitted.
Helmeted troops with automatic weapons covered all entries and alleys, in scenes reminiscent of the three day Lower Falls curfew of July, 1970.
Meanwhile, rioting broke out in nationalist areas of Belfast, Derry, Armagh, Lurgan and other towns as news spread of the RUC decision to allow Orangemen to proceed along Garvaghy Road.
Even before Mr Adams called a hurried afternoon press conference to call for the "utmost discipline" by nationalists, disturbances had begun in several nationalist areas.
As trouble spread, vehicles were hijacked, petrol bombs thrown, and the RUC fired plastic bullets. In Lurgan, Co Armagh, a bus was set on fire and a hijacked lorry was burned in Armagh city, where the bus station was set ablaze and 16 buses destroyed. Shops, including a post office, were also set on fire.
Following the end of the standoff at Drumcree, loyalist protests were called off and the barricades that had paralysed road traffic in the North since last Sunday were quickly dismantled.
The RUC Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Annesley, defended his decision to allow the Orange march to proceed.