A police officer fired two shots in the air to disperse a group of nationalist youths, some of them children, who were attacking one of his colleagues during the Apprentice Boys annual parade in Derry on Saturday.
The shooting incident and sporadic stone-throwing involving young nationalists and loyalists soured the day. Both sides also engaged in an almost continuous stream of sectarian abuse at the Diamond in Derry city centre, where they were separated by police.
However, using the violence of Drumcree as a yardstick, the Apprentice Boys march passed off relatively peacefully on Saturday, and probably about as well as the Bogside Residents' Group (BRG) or the loyal order could have hoped.
The violence was confined to young nationalists, some of whom were no older than eight or nine, and loyalist youths who had come to Derry's nationalist Cityside to observe the 10,000 Apprentice Boys parading behind 170 bands.
The Apprentice Boys and the bands did not engage in the disorderly scenes. The Apprentice Boys had marshals along the route to maintain order. Most people from the Bogside stayed away from the march, but about 30 or 40 young nationalists mustered at the Butcher Street end of the Diamond to trade insults and stones with the loyalists.
Initially there was little evidence of any senior nationalist marshals, but after the shooting incident they arrived on the scene to try to keep the youngsters in order.
The incident happened at 3.50 p.m. just after the main parade had finished. Two RUC officers had become isolated from their colleagues midway down Shipquay Street, just below the Diamond. The nationalist youths started pelting them with bottles and stones.
One of the officers fell to the ground, and some of the crowd started kicking him viciously. He drew his gun, but before he had a chance to fire it a third policeman ran on to the scene and fired two warning shots into the air, rapidly scattering the youths. The two officers appeared badly shaken. They were treated at Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry for minor injures and were released on Saturday night.
Police had created a buffer zone between the loyalists and nationalists at the Diamond, but they were well within a stone's throw of each other. As the missiles were exchanged throughout the three hours of the main parade a number of police and journalists, who were covering the parade from this "comfort" zone, were also struck by stones and bottles.
The parade was observed by Mr Chris Patten, head of the Police Review Commission, from the vantage point of an upper-floor window of the Richmond Shopping Centre at the Diamond.
The sectarian abuse between these two fairly small groups was ugly and virtually constant. Where Tricolours were displayed by some of the children or teenagers loyalists would respond by waving Union flags or Red Hand of Ulster flags. There was black "humorous" reference to various outrages such as Greysteel, Bloody Sunday and the Shankill bombing.
The audacity of some of the young nationalists bordered on the breathtaking. After the march as police were withdrawing from the scene the youths hurled missiles at them. One or two of them casually walked in front of parked occupied RUC Land-Rovers and pelted them with stones. The police did not respond.
Neutral observers at the scene wondered about parental control, while one RUC officer when confronted by a young boy said to him stoically: "Look, son, will you just go home."
After the shooting incident senior nationalists started shooing the young people away. But there was a persistent number who tried to defy their instructions. Around 6 p.m. when the parade was well over a small group threw stones at the DUP mayor of Derry, Mr Joe Millar, as he gave a press interview. At first he insisted on completing the interview, but the remaining police at the scene insisted he get into a police car and leave the area.
The Apprentice Boys governor, Mr Alistair Simpson, while complaining of "the juvenile rabble who respect no one", nonetheless said both his organisation and the BRG had respected the agreement they struck last Monday. "Were it not for the sporadic incidents from juvenile hooligans we would have had a day of which we could all be proud," he said.
He accused the republican movement in Derry of exploiting the tensions over the parade for its own ends. "Clearly the emotions excited by this approach cannot be turned off and on at will. The sectarian hatred that is an obvious consequence of such an irresponsible approach remains."
The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, praised the discipline of the BRG in reaching an accommodation with the Apprentice Boys. "Despite the reluctance of the RUC to move loyalist demonstrators as the main Apprentice Boys march moved through the Diamond I am sure most people will be satisfied that the day passed off without major incident," he said.
"There may be some optimism that a process has been initiated in Derry which, if followed in other areas, should lead to the loyal orders accepting the need for dialogue with those communities through which they wish to march," added Mr McLaughlin.
The BRG leader, Mr Donncha Mac Niallais, who did not appear at the scene of the march, said the shooting incident was "regrettable".
