A row has developed between Protestant church leaders and the
anti-Catholic loyal orders following Saturday’s Royal Black Institution
march in Belfast.
With unionist politicians and loyalist figures expressing defiance
despite last weekend’s trouble at the intersection of Carrick Hill and
Donegall Road, fears are growing that a giant loyalist parade planned
for the end of September could lead to further conflict.
Loyalist paramilitaries sprayed bullets at the home of a man who is due
to give evidence about the UDA murder of his cousin, Kevin McDaid, on
Wednesday night.
As nationalist residents battled with loyalist marchers and their
supporters on Saturday, both the main nationalist parties have been
embarrassed by news of compromising stances on the loyal orders and the
marching organisations.
A new round of health cuts to home help and services for high-dependency
patients in the 26 Counties has provoked a furious reaction from groups
working with older people and the disabled. It has also seen fresh
signs of disagreement between the government coalition parties.
Little has changed in the 40 years since Bernadette Devlin McAliskey
took her seat in Westminster. There’s been progress, she says, the token gestures, the handshake.
But change?
Unionists ‘politicians’ knew they hadn’t a
leg to stand on when they encouraged people to ignore the Parade
Commission’s determination and break the law.
Trouble broke out in Belfast city centre this afternoon after a
loyalist band was permitted to march past a Catholic church to the same
spot where it had conducted a provocative sectarian ritual last month.
The family of interned political dissident Marian Price have hit out at
the North’s prison authorities after warders refused to leave the room
while the veteran republican underwent an invasive medical procedure.
The unionist paramilitary UDA is believed to be behind a death threat
against a Belfast journalist, despite a belated denial issued on behalf
of the group.
A member of a County Antrim nationalist residents’ group has said the
PSNI took him “off the streets” ahead of a contentious loyalist -- by
arresting him over an attack on his wife’s car.
An attempt to rehabilitate members of pro-British police militias who
brutally opposed the Irish struggle for freedom during the War of
Independence has provoked outrage in the 26 Counties.
A notorious loyalist band has called on other unionists to join it in
defying a Parades Commission ruling over a contentious sectarian parade
tomorrow [Saturday August 25].
At least 34 people were shot dead and 80 more were injured when police
opened fire on striking workers at a platinum mine in Marikana, in the
North West province of South Africa last Thursday, August 16.
It is beyond belief that nearly all the
injustices and denial of people’s rights still exist today in 2012 and
that we have to march again for the same rights.
A Catholic pub was attacked by loyalists during a ‘feeder’ Apprentice
Boys parade in County Down last week -- but the DUP has said there would
have been no violence if nationalists had stayed indoors.
A lawyer acting for internee Marian Price has accused the Six County
prison authorities of being “inhumane” after she was handcuffed while
travelling in an ambulance between two Belfast hospitals.
There have been fears that a loyalist parade through the strongly
nationalist village of Rasharkin in County Antrim this evening could
provoke disorder.
The police ombudsman Michael Maguire has been asked to investigate a
bombing and shooting incident of the early years of the recent conflict
that bears strong similarities to the McGurk’s bar atrocity.
Securocrats have been strongly criticised for a ham-fisted attempt to
evacuate over a hundred homes in west Belfast last week -- before
declaring that a claimed rocket attack on a PSNI police landrover,
which prompted the evacuations, had been a hoax.
Concerns have been expressed over major Protestant marching season
events planned for the overwhelmingly nationalist cities of Derry and
Newry this month.
“Welcome to Northern Ireland” road signs have been provocatively raised
in border areas of the North by the Ulster Unionist minister for
regional development, Danny Kennedy.
The brother of a Ballymurphy boy who was shot in the back by a British
Army sniper 35 years ago has appealed for witnesses to come forward as
the Historical Enquiries Team (HET) looks into his death.
The SDLP has said a serving British soldier has desecrated the memory of
those who died on Bloody Sunday by posting an offensive slogan on the
internet.
The address delivered by Sinn Fein Assembly member Michelle
O’Neill at the party’s annual hunger strike commemoration in Dungiven,
County Derry, last weekend.
Wicklow woman Katie Taylor has won a hugely celebrated gold medal for
Ireland in the 2012 Olympics this afternoon when she beat Russian Sofya
Ochigava.
Following the announcement of a regrouping of the IRA last week, the
Belfast-based Oglaigh na hEireann has said it carried out a gun and
mortar rocket attack in west Belfast last weekend.
Prominent environmental activist Willie Corduff was arrested close to
where a truck carrying a 160-tonne section of a giant tunnel boring
machine sank in boggy ground in north County Mayo this week.
Relatives of four IRA Volunteers killed by undercover British soldiers
20 years ago have launched a report to highlight their campaign to
establish how they died.
Sinn Féin representatives have expressed sharply conflicting positions
over wealthy Fermanagh businessman Sean Quinn, whose family faces a
number of court-imposed legal and financial obligations.