3,000 police deployed for Twelfth parades

MORE than 3,000 police officers will be deployed to help keep the peace during the annual Twelfth of July parades in Northern Ireland.

Tensions are running high in a number of flashpoint areas of Belfast but the Orange Order and Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) have appealed for calm.

The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland said: “The Twelfth has always been, and will remain, a day of celebration and a family day out. Those who oppose us seek to destroy this. They must not be allowed to succeed.

“Anyone who responds with violence to such provocation only does a disservice to our cause and undermines all that we stand for.”

The Twelfth is the most significant date on the loyalist calendar, marking the victory of the Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

This year more than 10,000 people are expected to take part in over 800 Orange Order demonstrations across the region.

Although most parades pass off peacefully, the Parades Commission – a Government-appointed body set up to rule on contentious marches –, has imposed restrictions on more than 50 events deemed “sensitive”.

The Orange Order has branded the Parades Commission “discredited and inept” and members have picketed its headquarters to vent opposition to a number of recent determinations.

The biggest commemoration will be in Belfast where 71 bands and hundreds of Orangemen will march through the city centre.

An estimated 1,500 PSNI officers will be on duty to monitor the parade which, at its peak, could take longer than an hour to pass any given point.

One of the largest policing operations will be mounted at Ardoyne, a volatile community interface in north Belfast where opposing factions have clashed with police in the past.