IRA bombs blast Belfast police
80 Police Officers have been injured in republican riots following the annual twelfth of July Orange Order parade marking the victory of William of Orange over the James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. This year Orangemen carried a banner saying "make sectarianism history".
Blast bombs and petrol bombs were hurled at police by rioting Irish nationalists. Cars were hijacked and set on fire and around 60 arrests were made. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, who was with the protesters, said "the vast majority of people had demonstrated peacefully".
He continued to praise the rioters, saying that their protest had been "disciplined and peaceful", and blamed the police for the violence: "When the police moved in what I think was quite a reckless manner they took management completely away from the stewards…They brought the water cannon in too quickly, we should have been allowed to keep order."
Blast bombs and petrol bombs were hurled at police by rioting Irish nationalists. Cars were hijacked and set on fire and around 60 arrests were made. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, who was with the protesters, said "the vast majority of people had demonstrated peacefully".
He continued to praise the rioters, saying that their protest had been "disciplined and peaceful", and blamed the police for the violence: "When the police moved in what I think was quite a reckless manner they took management completely away from the stewards…They brought the water cannon in too quickly, we should have been allowed to keep order."
