Rioters shatter hopes of a calmer protest at Drumcree

A COUPLE of hundred rioters shattered hopes that the annual Drumcree parade in Co Armagh would pass off peacefully yesterday, but the reduced scale of the violence may have set the tone for a less eventful marching season.

A couple of hundred rioters shattered hopes that the annual Drumcree parade in Co Armagh would pass off peacefully yesterday, but the reduced scale of the violence may have set the tone for a less eventful marching season.

In Portadown, local Orangemen seemed grudgingly resigned to the fact that for the fifth year in a row they would be prevented from marching along the town's Catholic Garvaghy Road.

They made angry speeches at the security force roadblock at Drumcree Bridge, at one point asserting that Catholic residents treated them as the Nazis treated Jews. They seemed set to drift away when the stones and other missiles started flying.

Initially, the projectiles were thrown not by Orangemen but by a crowd of several dozen men and youths, described by police as "mindless, evil violent thugs". Assistant Chief Constable Stephen White was spat upon after receiving an Orange letter of protest.

From that point on, the event seemed to provide confirmation of the cynical old adage that, in Northern Ireland at least, no good deed goes unpunished.

With each year, the Orange attempt to march has come to be be seen more and more as a lost cause, with rapidly dwindling support among Protestants and indeed among Orangemen beyond Portadown.

Since all the intelligence suggested that neither the Orange Order nor any loyalist paramilitary organisations were gearing up for a fight this year, Mr White took the decision to mount a much less obtrusive security operation.

His intention was that a scaled-down, less-conspicuous presence would soothe Orange sensibilities and create a new, calmer atmosphere – what one security person on the spot described as "less in your face, more benign".

A further hope was that a good Drumcree would be generally relaxing, and would lessen the chances of trouble flaring elsewhere, especially in the flashpoints of north and east Belfast.

But the stoning, minor though it was by Northern Ireland standards, showed that trouble can flare without the involvement of big organisations and that it only takes a few to start trouble.

The outbreak posed a huge problem in that Drumcree Bridge was blocked not by one of the usual formidable container-shaped obstacles invented by the Army for that purpose, but by a much less imposing cast-iron wall.

One or more loyalist young bucks successfully scaled the wall, while others forced open its doors, demonstrating that relying on the new, lighter security was too optimistic.

The authorities then decided to move the container into place. The big roadblock, on which some army engineer had inscribed "Drumcree Bridge take two" was wheeled from its discreet hiding-place behind some trees, and prepared for use.

This took some time, and as it was going on riot police engaged the trouble-makers, who pelted them with stones, rocks and poles. The police first had to push back the rioters, and then attempt to hold them at bay as the roadblock was manoeuvred down the narrow road and fixed in place.

Then the police casualties appeared. The mouth and chin of one were covered in blood. Another, painfully coughing and wretching, was half-carried by two soldiers, his arms around their shoulders.

A tall policeman with a country accent grabbed a soldier by both shoulders, telling him urgently: "We need a stretcher, now, as quick as we can." Those hurt were taken to a military hospital lorry for first aid: police said that, in all, 24 officers were injured, of whom four were detained in hospital.

Three plastic bullets were fired at the rioters, one of them breaking a man's elbow. Television pictures later showed that he had just lifted a large rock when he was struck.

A little later, the uninjured police came back up the road, ruddy-faced after stripping off the flameproof balaclavas they wear under their helmets. One of the riot squad members turned out to be a woman.

They took gulps of bottled water after their ordeal, clearly wondering what had gone wrong with the security operation, and wondering, too, how much more of the same the summer is going to bring.