Irish protesters pelt police

Press, 15 July 1985, Page 6

Irish protesters pelt police

NZPA-Reuter Poradown, Northern Ireland Protestant youths pelted the police with stones and bottles yesterday after being refused permission to parade through a Catholic area of Portadown, a mainly Protestant town, but there was no repeat of Saturday’s ugly clashes, in which 28 policemen were injured. About 1000 members of the Royal Black Institute — part of the Orange Order, the biggest Protestant or-

ganisation in Northern Ireland — confronted the police and soldiers blocking the way to the Catholic area of Portadown. After the marchers were refused permission to go through the area, as in previous years during celebration of a famous 300-year-old Protestant military victory, stones and bottles were thrown by a group of 300 youths, no injuries were reported. The authorities allowed a Protestant march to pass

through the area last weekend, but only after getting assurances that they would avoid the area during the main parades this week-end. Protestants, who are in a two-to-one majority over Catholics in the province, are angry about the decision to reroute parades that traditionally go through Catholic areas. Protestants say the move was prompted by pressure from the Government of the Irish Republic, which is en-

gaged in talks with Britain on Northern Ireland’s future. The two countries have already agreed in preliminary talks that the identities of the two warring communities in the north should be respected. The parades celebrate the victory of Protestant forces led by William of Orange over Catholics under the deposed King James II at the Battle of the Boyne, in 1690.