Violence after Orange parade

Music and supporters were banned from part of the route

Several people have been injured in an incident involving a bus returning from a contentious Orange Order parade in west Belfast.

Police said a number of windows on the bus, which was carrying bandsmen from the Whiterock parade on Saturday, were smashed.

Nationalist residents in the area said bandsmen stopped the bus and ran onto Stanhope Street where a Catholic man was stabbed. He is said to be in a stable condition in hospital.

Earlier, the loyal order parade and a protest by nationalists passed off peacefully.

Nationalists were unhappy with the route of the parade which passed from the loyalist Shankill Road, across the peaceline, and onto the mainly nationalist Springfield Road.

The march had been given the go-ahead by the Northern Ireland Parades Commission.

However, music and supporters were banned from part of the parade route, from Workman Avenue to West Circular Road.

Among those taking part in the parade were the head of the Protestant Orange Order, Robert Saulters, and the chairman of the Loyalist Commission, the Reverend Mervyn Gibson.

Before the parade passed, a group of protesters was allowed through police lines to stand near the peaceline gates at Workman Avenue.

'Mindless violence'

They carried a large banner which said: "Orange - it's good to talk".

Chief Superintendent Cecil Craig of the Police Service of Northern Ireland said it was a good result for people who live in the area.

Frank McCoubrey, an independent loyalist councillor in west Belfast, said it took five years to build that level of trust between the two communities.

"This sends out a message to the rest of Northern Ireland that if it can be done here on the Springfield Road, which has seen some of the most mindless violence anywhere in the Province, then it can be done elsewhere," he said.

Tom Hartley, a Sinn Fein councillor in west Belfast, praised the discipline of the crowd.

However, he added: "It's up the Parades Commission to insist that the Orange Order engages in dialogue so we can find a resolution through talking."

Nationalists protested against the route of the march

On Saturday morning, Army bomb disposal experts examined a suspicious object discovered on the Springfield Road, close to the parade route. It was later declared a hoax.

A day before the parade, the MP for the area, Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, appealed for calm after leading a party delegation to meet the Parades Commission.

Speaking afterwards, Mr Adams said there was "justifiable anger" among nationalists at the Protestant Orange Order's rejection of a compromise proposal.

Sinn Fein requested the meeting to discuss the move, which, it claimed, would have allowed the march to proceed without opposition.

A senior Belfast Orangeman, Dawson Bailey, echoed Mr Adams' call for calm.

Protesters

Trouble broke out at last year's march through the Springfield Road area.

Security forces were pelted with stones and used a water cannon to disperse nationalist protesters who were angry that the march had been allowed through the area.

The government established the Parades Commission in 1998 to make decisions on whether controversial parades should be restricted.

Commission rulings restricting marches by the Protestant loyal orders, which are opposed by nationalist residents, have led to calls by unionist politicians for the body to be scrapped.

However, since its creation, the Orange Order has refused to co-operate with the commission.