DUP 'outrage' over parade ruling

Robert Saulters said he wrote to Orange Order members

A decision to bar a controversial Orange Order parade from a nationalist area of west Belfast will top the Democratic Unionist Party's agenda when it meets the prime minister on Friday.

Ian Paisley made the comment following a ruling by the Parades Commission to bar Orangemen from walking down the Springfield Road during the annual Whiterock parade next Saturday.

Mr Paisley called the decision "disastrous and unacceptable" and said it could heighten tensions.

Speaking on Monday, he said: "Anything could happen on Saturday."

"The Protestant people and the Orangemen are rightly outraged, the only way we can translate that outrage to the prime minister is to have a meeting with him.

"We are not threatening violence, we are asking for our rights".

Nationalist residents had threatened a protest along the route if the Orangemen had been allowed through.

The commission cited previous breaches of codes of conduct for the restriction.

'Enjoy ourselves'

Earlier, the Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland appealed for a peaceful marching season.

Robert Saulters said he had written to members of the Orange Order.

"I'm asking for them to keep it cool not to let them be intimidated by republicans or anyone else," he said.

"We want a quiet Twelfth, as we had last year because of the elections coming up and Gerry Adams asked them (republicans) to be quiet last year so let us be quiet this year and show that we can enjoy ourselves without any friction," he said.

The Parades Commission was set up in 1997 to make decisions on whether controversial parades should be restricted.