A contentious Orange Order parade at a notorious flashpoint in north Belfast has passed off without incident.
There had been fears of violence after the Parades Commission reversed a decision banning the loyal orders from parading past Ardoyne Shops.
Small numbers of residents and onlookers, including North Belfast MP John Finucane and Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly, lined the Crumlin Road as the bands walked by in silence.
A significant and highly visible police presence had been on-hand from early morning to maintain order at a location once notorious for violent disorder during the marching season.
An Orange Order parade passes the Ardoyne shops on the Crumlin Road in Belfast as part of the ‘Twelfth of July’ celebrations earlier this year (PA).
Despite concerns the newly-authorised march to celebrate Orange Heritage Week, consisting of around 150 people including three lodges and a band, made its way past the nationalist area without any trouble.
Many residents watching on carried banners bearing the slogans “No parade without agreement” and “Rights marched over” as the parade passed in a tense but calm fashion.
There has been controversy over previous marches in the area.
As part of the 2016 deal between the lodges and the Crumlin and Ardoyne Residents Association (Cara), outward parades were able to proceed along the road passing the Ardoyne shops on the morning of July 12 each year, but without return parades to the Orange Hall in the evening.
A total of five morning parades each year were agreed as part of the deal.
Cara claimed today’s parade is effectively a return parade to the Ligoniel Orange Hall and is outside the terms of the 2016 agreement. However, the lodges insisted the parade is not a breach of the 2016 accord.
The Parades Commission said its ruling to permit the parade was a “carefully considered and finely balanced judgment” and represented a “fair balance between the needs of the community and the rights of the individual”.
The area has previously witnessed serious loyalist and republican rioting when tensions linked to parading boiled over on the Twelfth.
A 24/7 loyalist protest camp was set up at the sectarian interface in 2013 when the Parades Commission prevented Orangemen belonging to the three Orange lodges from passing the Ardoyne as they returned from traditional Twelfth commemorations.
An Orange Order parade makes its way along the Crumlin Road on the morning of the Twelfth this year (PA).
Nightly protests were held in the nearby unionist Woodvale/Twaddell area in the years after that, with a protest parade every Saturday.
The policing operation at the site cost in excess of £20 million over three years.
After protracted negotiations, the accord between the three lodges and Cara was reached in 2016.
It saw the Orangemen complete the outstanding return leg of their 2013 parade on a morning in September 2016, after which the loyalist camp at the interface was dismantled and all associated protests ended.
From that point on, the lodges agreed not to apply for any more return parades on the Twelfth until a wider agreement on the issue was reached.
In return, Cara agreed not to protest at the lodges’ already permitted outward parade on the morning of the Twelfth.
That deal fell apart in the summer, with Orangemen bemoaning what they characterised as a lack of progress towards achieving a long-term agreement that would enable evening parades on the Twelfth.