Tour of the North tension fuelled by Orange Order's court challenge

THE DECISION by the Orange Order to launch a legal challenge to the Parades Commission's determination on unionist Tour of the North parade at St Patrick's Church flashpoint last Friday added to the tension already felt by nationalist residents of the area.

Residents had called off a protest in response to the Parades Commissions ruling and saw the Orange Order challenge as provocative.

The Commission had extended the restrictions on bands playing music from Clifton Street past St Patrick's by 43 metres, incensing the Orange Order, who somehow saw the new limits as unreasonable.

In rejecting the Orangemen's case, Judge Treacy noted that tensions around marches in the area had been exacerbated by provocative incidents.

The Parades Commission has consistently banned music being played by loyalist bands passing the church after the 2012 incident where the sectarian Famine Song was played by the Shankill-based Young Conway Volunteers band.

While welcoming the fact that the march on Friday had passed off peacefully, Sinn Féin North Belfast MLA Gerry Kelly noted that as some bands left the 'restricted area' they and the unionist hangers-on congregating at Donegall Street and Royal Avenue sang and chanted the Famine Song.

● Shankill Star Band's tribute to UVF sectarian killer Brian Robinson taking part in Tour of North

◼︎ BANDSMEN taking part in a unionist band parade in the Donegall Road/Sandy Row area of south Belfast on Saturday 20 June are being accused of assaulting two brothers.

Eyewitnesses say that up to 10 members of one of the participating bands attacked one of the brothers, beating his head off the side of a taxi. The other brother needed treatment for facial wounds.