Peaceful Marches In N. Ireland
More than 20,000 Protestants filled the streets of Londonderry Saturday with British flags and banners declaring "No Surrender"—a defiant demonstration made possible by a deal with leaders of this mostly Catholic city.
Amid the clamor, there were hopeful signs that common sense can prevail in Northern Ireland after years of march-fueled violence. Most Catholics stayed at home or went shopping in nearby malls as the Apprentice Boys brotherhood, a historic symbol of Protestant dominance, commemorated the days when Protestants controlled this 17th-century fortress city.
The two-and-a-half-hour parade passed with little tension except at its most sensitive spot—the central square within the city walls known as the Diamond, a venue for sectarian riots since the early 19th century.
A few hundred Catholics walked up from the nearby Bogside quarter. A minority were armed with beer bottles, which they hurled over police lines at the marchers.
One struck a member of a so-called "kick the pope" band, provoking a furious but brief attempt by bandsmen to get past police. Nobody was reported seriously hurt, and Apprentice Boy stewards quickly intervened to ensure that the parade proceeded across the River Foyle into Londonderry's mostly Protestant east side.
The parade came at a crucial time for this British-linked province, which has been torn for decades by sectarian violence but has enjoyed a measure of self-rule in recent months under a 1998 peace accord.
The annual Apprentice Boys parade commemorates the 1689 bombardment of the city's Protestant garrison by forces loyal to a Catholic king, James II. The starving inhabitants were saved on Aug. 12 after a 105-day siege when a flotilla of English supply ships broke through a boom placed across the Foyle.
The group is named for 13 youthful apprentices who, as legend has it, bolted the city gates in the face of James' approaching soldiers. Their move defied the city's compromise-minded governor, who wanted to talk rather than fight.
Today's governor of the Apprentice Boys, Alistair Simpson, defended his decision to negotiate directly earlier this week with militant Catholics who in previous years tried to block the parade. Other Protestant marching groups, particularly the Orange Order, have shunned direct talks—a factor in last month's widespread Protestant rioting when British authorities restricted several Orange parades.
Pressure for compromise from the city's Catholic businesspeople played an important part in persuading Catholics to call off all protests this year. Rioting by Catholic youths following Apprentice Boys demonstrations in 1998 and 1999 caused more than $15 million in damage, mostly to Catholic-owned businesses that dominate the city center.
Not everyone was appeased, though.
Thousands of Apprentice Boys from Belfast, 70 miles east of Londonderry, had to arrive by bus rather than train because a series of bomb threats closed the min Belfast-to-Londonderry rail line. Police searches found no bomb, and train service resumed in the afternoon.
On Thursday night, Londonderry police tried to intercept a van carrying about 500 pounds of homemade explosives into the city, but the vehicle sped back to the nearby border with the Irish Republic and was abandoned.
On Saturday, the outlawed Loyalist Volunteer Force released a statement saying it would shoot anyone who attacks Protestant homes.
It joined fellow pro-British loyalist group, The Ulster Defense Association, which earlier reinstated its threat to break a cease-fire and defend areas under attack from Catholic nationalists. The move came after attacks on Protestant homes Thursday night, which were blamed on republicans.
Londonderry's long-dominant Catholic politician, Social Democratic and Labor Party leader John Hume, condemned those who would try to launch attacks as "fascists" who were trying "to subvert the will of the Irish people."
Hume, a moderate, began brokering negotiations between the Apprentice Boys and Catholics in 1996. He said most Catholics would accept Apprentice Boys parades so long as marchers negotiated conditions with Catholic representatives.
By SHAWN POGATCHNIK