February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Anne Cadwallader
BELFAST — Nationalist fury at RUC tactics in policing Orange parades spilled over into violence in North and East Belfast last week with riotingin Ardoyne, where 20 people were hospitalized and more than 100 police officers were injured.
During one night’s rioting in North Belfast, more than forty new-style plastic bullets were fired, injuring several people, 10 of whom were treated at hospitals.
On the night of July 12, the RUC came under sustained petrol bomb attack from Nationalists, who also threw rocks and bottles at police lines. One officer was hit on the head with a pickaxe handle, while a local SDLP councilor accused the RUC of "sheer brutality."
In the Nationalist Short Strand area of East Belfast, loyalists waiting for the return of an Orange march lobbed rocks and stones at pensioners’ bungalows, breaking 13 windows.
Residents flooded out of their houses and young men began breaking up dozens of bricks and throwing them over the roofs of houses at the loyalists. Three bursts of gunfire were heard in the area.
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One woman was hit on the head by a police baton as she left her home to pull her son in from the violence. She has made an official complaint to the independent police ombudsman, who is also investigating why a police vehicle allegedly was driven at young protesters in North Belfast on Friday.
In Ardoyne, the violence began after the RUC moved in to clear a small group of Nationalist protesters off a road about 150 yards from where 100 Orangemen were due to march back to their lodges in Ligoniel. Officers used water cannon to clear the road of Nationalist protesters. Angry young people soon took to the streets and seven hours of violence followed.
A lodge of the Orange Order was due to be forced past Ardoyne shops as part of the annual July 12 marches. The Orangemen gave two-fingered salutes and spat at people as they passed.
A few dozen protestors gathered watching as hundreds of RUC and British Army saturated the area with about 90 armored vehicles.
About 20 residents managed to make it onto the main Crumlin Road and they staged an impromptu protest, sitting in a group or holding hands across the road where the Orange march was due to take place.
It is alleged that police responded by breaking into an Estoril Park home where other protesters were gathering. A resident of the home said they club her and other family members.
When Nationalists began throwing stones, the RUC again responded with water-cannon, plastic bullets and baton charges as they cleared the area.
The RUC then turned their attention to the protesters on the Crumlin Road. Among them was Philomena Flood, who represented the parents of Catholic children in recent negotiations with the RUC after loyalists laid siege to their school.
Also there was Brendan "Bik" MacFarlane, a republican ex-prisoner known to the RUC as a leading protest steward. The RUC charged down the Crumlin Road, beating people into nearby gardens and homes.
Amid the chaos, the arrival of the Orangemen and their loyalist supporters led to serious disturbances. About 10 cars were set on fire and used as barricades against the police, while Nationalist youths attacked a nearby petrol station and stole gasoline to make firebombs — up to 260 of which were thrown at the police.
The RUC chief constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, said he would be investigate reports that the IRA had orchestrated the rioting.
"A group of people were sitting in the middle of the road and the police began to advance on them with their shields up," said one man, who watched the developing riot from his window.
"I can understand the RUC were trying to clear the road, but what happened next I can’t believe. People were obviously reluctant to leave the road — this was half an hour before the Orangemen were due to pass.
"The police began pursuing people into the front gardens of houses and beat them with batons. People in the houses then tried to drag the injured into the houses to safety."
In the city center, rival loyalist factions also clashed with each other on the Twelfth in a sudden outburst of feuding between rival gangs of UVF and UDA men during the main Belfast Orange parade.
Bystanders fled when bandsmen associated with the two loyalist groups began fighting. Ceremonial swords, pikes and banner poles were used and at least seven people were hospitalized with mostly facial and upper-body injuries.