Just to clarify, it was indeed a nationalist parade, but it was a Republican parade too celebrating the life of a Protestant; Henry Joy McCracken.

Show’s which community is progressive and which is reactionary and backward in the north. On the one hand we have nationalists celebrating an individual from the other “side” who attempted to realise Tone’s vision of uniting ‘Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter’ and who displayed a true class consciousness when after the 1798 rebellion he remarked that “the rich always betray the poor”.

On the other hand we have those who are loyal to a foreign monarch who does nothing and cares nothing for them, who hold a veto over the entirety of the country that holds down a military apparatus of occupation and who attack this parade with its progressive ideal seeking only to stir up community antagonisms.

How about forcing the Orange Order to make contributions towards the cost of policing their parades. Same way a football club has to pay when they host a football match.

It was a lawful parade that was attacked by Loyalists, even though it was not sectarian in nature, or going to pass any of the many troublespot loyalist areas. Comparing this parade to the Orange Orders ‘burn all Tagues’ sectarian outpourings every year is a bit of a stretch, and hardly paints a fair picture of the hostile parade environment that surround the minority in Northern Ireland.
In a democracy people should be allowed express their beliefs, free from the threat of sectarianism or racial prejudice. Why shouldn’t nationalists parade, provided they are respectful and dignified? Why must the Orange Orders bile be reasoned out, explained and even tolerated, but a peaceful nationalist parade, which was approved by the authorities, be silenced, while the people that attacked it are sympathised with? Its ridiculous. Its a step into the silly zone of political agenda thinking, where vile sectarianism can be departmentalised and then ignored. Some remarks on this thread highlight that in our new politically correct Ireland, where we are cowering before the alter of PC revisionist history, we are losing sight of the realities that confront people, particularly in the north, where the inclusiveness promised has failed to materialise and they are increasingly being set upon by hate filled loyalist gangs, who are determined to lash out at their neighbours, in the hope of reigniting the Troubles.
Many will point out the subdued resurgence of republicans as a counter argument, but they are targeting police and military personal(or drug dealers in and around Derry) so that comparison is a bit weak, as they are not lashing out at the neighbouring community. Maybe we need a bit more perspective in these articles?
My point is that we should not condone the actions of those that lashed out at the PSNI(why would we? the war is over), but try and understand the frustrations of the nationalists involved, whose parade was scuppered by loyalist thugs. They were, initially, the victims of a racial attack by a sectarian group, and I believe this point should be better highlighted in this article.

why were nationalists parading ?

‘Ireland unfree will never be at peace’ (Padraig Pearse)

and we call this peace

What I find curious, disingenuous and downright misleading about this article is that the author, deliberately or not, does not clearly identify who the perpetrators of rioting are. While she does mention that the parade is Nationalist, she shys away from labelling the rioters. The Irish Times report on this clearly identifies the rioters in their first paragraph.

It is the author’s role to inform and report. There is no background on the reason for the parade and if you didn’t know the geography of Belfast it’s nearly up to yourself to decide who was rioting.

Not sure if I’m the only one, in 1798 there was more inclusive thinking than there is in 2012, 1798!!! I don’t condone marching by either side up there at this stage because it simply leads to riots. The majority of people of both persuasions want to move on. The sad thing is the minority getting the headlines. Civil liberties seem to get trampled on wholesale. It’s disgusting

One can only speculate as to the intelligence levels of such knuckle-draggers, but one suspects it is not close to the already low average there.

Well there were many inclusive thinkers in Ireland in 1798, but at the same time there were ten of thousands of people killed in battles, executed, tortured etc ( many slain at the hands of our dear friends across the Irish Sea) so in a sense I see a lot of progress since the 18th century.

The solution to this is Macnas! Get them up there. Remember all the misery surrounding the Patrick’s day parade. Along came Macnas and now it’s a veritable Mardi Gras!

More bored youth with nothing to do during the summer. Taking a break from video games of violence and killing and then off into the street to put it all into practice. There will always be an element of yobs who like violence. It gives meaning to their lives.

They have all right to^

shameful behaviour.

United Ireland? No thanks.

they are a different breed of animal up north

They should build two marching stadia and let each side fill it with statues of their heroes. Have Police search marchers and supporters coming in. Let them trot all over the track to their hearts content and let everyone else get on with their lives.

As long as the triomphalist Orange order will march through Nationalist areas there will be trouble.These bullies should not be allowed in those areas in the first place.

Really fantastic comment, “it was. Nationalist parade” then “why we’re they parading” then “they are allowed to” all that was missing was AT THE MOMENT