UK: POLICE CLASH WITH CATHOLICS TRYING TO PREVENT ORANGE PARADE.

Record ID: 649338

  • Title: UK: POLICE CLASH WITH CATHOLICS TRYING TO PREVENT ORANGE PARADE.
  • Date: 12th August 1995
  • Summary: LONDONDERRY, NORTHERN IRELAND, UNITED KINGDOM (AUGUST 12, 1995) (REUTERS) GV/VARIOUS POLICE CLASH WITH PROTESTERS AS THEY TRY TO MOVE THEM FROM STREET (9 SHOTS) 1.12 SLV/SV PEOPLE APPLAUD AS PROTESTANT ORANGEMEN CARRYING FLAGS LEAD MARCHERS DOWN STREET/ MARCHERS IN BOWLER HATS/MARCHING BANDS ACCOMPANIED BY POLICE ESCORT (7 SHOTS) 1.48 GV PROTESTERS/ MARTIN MCGUINESS APPEALING FOR CALM 1.52 GV/SV PROTESTANT MARCHERS WALKING THROUGH STREETS, BANDS MARCHING THROUGH STREETS/ PAN TO PROTESTERS (3 SHOTS) 1.58 GV/SV PROTESTERS THROW PETROL BOMBS AT POLICE VEHICLES/ POLICE FIRE PLASTIC BULLETS FROM BRIDGE (3 SHOTS) 2.42 GV SMALL FIRES AROUND POLICE VEHICLES 2.50
  • Embargoed: 27th August 1995 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDONDERRY, NORTHERN IRELAND, UNITED KINGDOM
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Crime,General,Politics,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA1EFUI45VIPA71Y8Q2KRYQKOS9
  • Story Text: Northern Ireland's police fired plastic bullets and fought hand-to-hand battles on Saturday (August 12) with Catholics trying to prevent Protestants from marking a 300-year-old religous battle.
    Several people were injured and there were a number of arrests when police in the capital, Belfast, hauled Catholics off a street where they were trying to stop Protestants parading.
    Scuffles broke out and police used truncheons to beat protesters. They fired four plastic bullets as bottles and cans thrown by demonstrators rained down upon them in a Catholic and Irish nationalist area of the city.
    The fighting lasted about 20 minutes before police gained control and allowed a small, token column of 30 Protestants to march down the Ormeau road before taking buses to join around 20,000 of their fellows in the second city of Londonderry.
    It was some of the worst violence in Northern Ireland since the underground Irish Republican Army (IRA) declared a ceasefire almost a year ago to allow its political wing, Sinn Fein, to negotiate its aim of ending British rule.
    About 20,000 Protestants then converged on Londonderry to parade through the predominantly Catholic town to remember an incident three centuries ago when Protestant Apprentice Boys slammed shut the gates of the city against Catholic King James II.
    Police forcibly removed about 200 Catholic demonstrators from the ancient walls of the city where they were trying to prevent Protestants from marching along a section which overlooks the predominantly Catholic bogside area.
    Thousands of Protestants wearing bowler hats and grey suits as a sign of their Britishness began to march through the town to the beat of military-style pipe bands.
    Catholics held a small rally in the bogside after Martin McGuinness, chief strategist of Sinn Fein, appealed for calm.
    Afterwards there were protests about the conduct of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) by Catholics, but RUC officials defended the behaviour of their officers.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register