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Northern Ireland Police Attacked During Parade by Orange Order
July 14 (Bloomberg) -- Northern Ireland police officers were attacked with gunfire, stones and gasoline bombs in Belfast yesterday as violence broke out during the annual Orange Order parades in the U.K. province.
Ah, tis it that time of year again?
Faith & begorrah.
Ah, saints be praised, the boyos be actin up again...
Boyos will be boyos, I guess.
Nine officers were injured during the attacks, three vehicles were hijacked and burned and at least one shot was fired at police, a spokesman for the Police Service of Northern Ireland said in a recorded message today. Police fired 18 plastic bullets and deployed water cannon to quell the riot, which is continuing, the message said.
Ah, Sean, makes me misty for the good old days...
The Protestant parade is one of hundreds that took place in Northern Ireland yesterday to celebrate the victory of the Protestant King William over the Catholic King James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The July 12 parades have caused serious rioting in Northern Ireland since the 1990s as Catholics protest against the parades passing through their districts and Protestants insist on the parades going through mainly pro-Irish Catholic neighborhoods.

While the province's political parties signed a peace deal two years ago and most paramilitary groups have renounced violence, disturbances still break out during the so-called marching season. Sinn Fein, former allies of the Irish Republican Army -- which fought for a united Ireland before ending their campaign in 2005 -- blamed the Real IRA, a splinter group, for orchestrating the violence. The Real IRA, which killed two British soldiers in March, "drafted in rioters," to Ardoyne, Sinn Fein lawmaker Gerry Kelly, told the British Broadcasting Corp.

Threw Missiles
Teenage youths, some with their faces bravely covered by masks, threw missiles at police shortly before the Protestant parade was due to pass Ardoyne. Police, dressed in riot gear and balaclavas, deployed water cannon and ushered the parade past the neighborhood shortly after 8 p m yesterday.

After the parade passed, security force helicopters buzzed over the area as rioters, some in balaclavas, hurled gasoline bombs at police, pausing to make calls on mobile phones before running up alleys to return with bricks and bottles.
Did ya see me on the telly, Bridget O'Brien! Up the Provos!
Ardoyne, a pro-Irish nationalist enclave of around two dozen streets, has been the scene of serious riots at the same parade in past years.

The violence "is not representative of the vast majority of people who have moved on and embraced a peaceful future," assistant police chief constable Alistair Finlay said in an e- mailed statement yesterday. Belfast city center shops opened yesterday for the first time in decades, as businesses wagered the worst of the marching season violence was over.

In a separate incident, a "small bomb" exploded in Armagh today, police said. A number of officers who attended the scene were attacked with gasoline bombs and other missiles.
Hooligans! Ruffians!
Posted by: Steve 2009-07-14
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=274260