Saturday's contentious Orange Order Whiterock parade in west Belfast concluded peacefully despite criticisms of the Parades Commission both by nationalist residents and Orangemen.
Police and most politicians now hope that the successful outcome of the parade will set a peaceful tone for the rest of the marching season. The most contentious parades are next Sunday in Drumcree and on Thursday week, July 12th, at Ardoyne in north Belfast.
More than 800 Orangemen parading behind several bands took part in the annual Whiterock parade on Saturday afternoon but only 50 members and one band were allowed pass through the Workman Avenue peaceline gates onto the nationalist Springfield Road.
The remainder of the parade as determined by the Parades Commission marched through the old Mackies industrial site to the Whiterock Orange hall before both groups paraded back to the Shankill.
Two years ago serious rioting erupted during the Whiterock parade. Petrol and blast bombs were hurled at police lines while loyalist paramilitaries opened fire on police and British soldiers.
With a police helicopter hovering overhead PSNI officers, many of them in riot gear, policed the parade and nationalist protest on Saturday. However, the level of security was markedly down on previous years.
When the Workman Avenue gates were opened at 3.40pm on Saturday supporters of the Orangemen cheered as the band and 50 members paraded onto the Springfield Road. Some nationalist protesters booed as the marchers came onto the road.
Overall, though, the mood was relatively relaxed and there was no stone-throwing or other forms of violence. One young nationalist man waved an Irish tricolour from the porch roof of a house, set back from the road.
Some Orangemen complained that this was provocative.
Both nationalists and Orangemen and their supporters were carefully marshalled. The parade organisers complained, however, that an agreement was broken that Orange marshals would be allowed accompany the parade as it made its way a couple of hundred yards along the Springfield Road to the Orange hall.
Tommy Cheevers, of the North and West Belfast Parades Forum, claimed the police and Parades Commission bowed to pressure from protesters by banning Orange marshals from entering the Springfield Road.
More than 100 nationalists lined part of the road as the parade went by. They carried two large banners declaring "Make Sectarianism History" and "Parades Commission Maintains Orange Domination".
Sinn Féin Assembly member Paul Maskey complained that nationalists were denied their human rights because the Parades Commission did not allow them protest along the full stretch of the parade along the Springfield Road.
"This is a human rights issue where people are not allowed protest outside their own homes. That is a total disgrace. The Parades Commission had from last year to now to resolve outstanding issues, and they failed to do so," he said.
Mr Maskey said the best way of ending such confrontations was for the Orange Order to cancel the Springfield Road part of the parade.
