E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Peter Morrison / AP
Riot police come under attack from a petrol bomb thrown by Nationalist rioters in the Ardoyne area of North Belfast, Northern Ireland on July 12, 2012.
July 12 is the busiest day of the marching season in Northern Ireland. Thousands of Orangemen and women, accompanied by marching bands, held their main Belfast event commemorating King William III's 1690 Battle of the Boyne victory over Catholic King James II. The tradition is seen as provocation by Irish nationalists who want to be part of a united Ireland. Police fired water cannon at Catholic youths in Belfast after rioting erupted. Read more here
Cathal Mcnaughton / Reuters
Nationalist youths clash with riot police in the Ardoyne area of North Belfast, Northern Ireland on July 12, 2012.
Peter Morrison / AP
Nationalist rioters hold the Irish flag as they face riot police in the Ardoyne area of North Belfast, Northern Ireland on July 12, 2012.
Peter Morrison / AP
Nationalist residents shout at police as an Orange Order parade passes the Ardyone area of North Belfast, Northern Ireland on July 12, 2012.
Peter Morrison / AP
Protestant bandsmen march past the mainly Catholic Ardyone area of North Belfast, Northern Ireland on July 12, 2012.
Leave a Comment:
Where's all the good news .... ??
Same old @!$%# every year over there.
Why don't they quit protesting,the change in tactics would drive the Brits crazy waiting for the other shoe to drop.
The "Orange Order" takes their parade by the Catholic neighborhoods to start trouble. They celebrate a battle that helped make being Catholic illegal over 300 years ago. It is easy to say that the Catholics should just ignore them but not so easy to do so when they are getting right in your face. Many people leave the country for "marching season", if they can. It would be nice if people would grow up and cut out the school yard taunting.
What are these people thinking? Ireland is NOT a 3rd world country, lacking in educated people. The Ireland terrorist troubles are an insult to ALL developed countries. For F! sakes stop bombing S! you troubled Irish individules. Join the armed forces and and go protect/defend people if you need to cool your jets.
By the way...Everyone knows Jesus is Catholic...so those who are right are right.
And there's me thinking he was a Jew.
Why do the British men still wear wigs ?
Religion again. Believers are frustrated daily, so whenever they get a chance they take it out on believers of other faiths, whose prayers are never answered either.
This conflict has roots when there was no separation of church and state. States put on religion. This conflict is about real estate like most.
There is NO doubt the British takeover, domination, and brutal suppression and near genocide of the Irish people is written in stone. It is fact. The Irsih were unfortunate to be so close to Britian. The hatred and violence today is INTOLERABLE. Bono, of U2, said it well at a concert in Boston years ago. The IRA is full of it. So are the protestants who keep this nonsense up. How would the Germans like it IF the Nazis had a rememberance parade. How would people in the US like it IF some organization had UNION VICTORY parades in the south. There IS a difference BETWEEN history and tradition and keeping it alive AND looking for a fight. That's all this is about and it shows what shallow lives these people have. It is a GOOD thing that the MAJORITY of current Northern Irelanders have MOVED beyond this nonsense. They are the furture and these paraders are the past.
I really need to remind myself not to read the comments on articles on international news websites, because the lack of knowledge of Northern Ireland is shocking.
Just quickly, speaking as an atheist, I can still tell you that the riots yesterday had nothing to do with religious beliefs. It only just happens that one side is Catholic and the other side is Protestant. It was never about religion.
Secondly, the conflict is over in Northern Ireland, violence is limited to annual riots on one or two days of the year, related to Orange Order marches, and a handful of violent attacks on police by dissident republicans. No different to the gang violence seen in other major cities and towns around the world.
Northern Ireland is still a great and safe place to go as a tourist destination.
Don't let me do the talking though - find out all about Northern Ireland yourself. The only things you may ever read are the international news headlines about Northern Ireland - which are almost always covering the bad news here.
Thank you ciaran036; I thought I was going to have to intervene. The ignorance of near all previous commenters was gross. But oldlint has a point about church and state. Yet just to remind all it was the Church of Ireland that ran the island government; it's those pesky Presbyterians who are really motivated in the Orange Order :-)
No need to confuse religion with ethno-nationalist conflict: one's denomination is used as a marker for one's allegiance -- one for a republican government and another for a constitutional monarchy.