Dozens of police officers injured in Belfast rioting

BELFAST, Northern Ireland – Northern Ireland police say at least eight officers have been injured in nighttime Belfast riots after the British territory’s main Protestant brotherhood was blocked from marching through a Catholic district.

A man has been arrested for attempted murder after a teenager was hit by a vehicle during a riot in Belfast.

In the years before the 2013 ban on evening Orange parades past Ardoyne, the march was repeatedly pelted with projectiles as it passed and police faced much more intense violence, including from IRA activists on Ardoyne store roofs overlooking the street who hurled homemade grenades into police lines.

It was later was confirmed that she was a 16-year-old from Ardoyne, but as she lay injured on the ground she appeared much younger. A tense stand-off continued tonight.

Water cannon were used to try to restore order as steel barricades meant for crowd control were thrown.

Sinn Féin deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said he “unreservedly” condemned those who attacked a bus carrying Orange Order members through Greysteel in County Derry, a petrol-bomb attack on the Verbal Arts Centre in Derry City, and other incidents in Derry.

Harold Henning, the order’s deputy grand master in Ireland, said: “I don’t know what the president’s diary was, but the invitation is still there for him to attend a future event”. It is not only counterproductive but also plain wrong.

“Anyone who responds with violence to such provocation only does a disservice to our cause and undermines all that we stand for”. “We call on anyone engaged in illegal behaviour to stop immediately”.

“Once again, officers demonstrated their patience and professionalism even though their lines were under attack”.

A number of loyalists broke through police lines and danced on the bonnets of PSNI armoured land rovers at one point.

Loyalist bandsmen played the sectarian starvation Song and the well-known loyalist tune The Sash.

“Overall, this year’s Twelfth of July was an overwhelmingly peaceful celebration in most areas of Northern Ireland”.

The Government-appointed Parades Commission, which rules on contentious marches, had issued a determination barring Orangemen from part of the Crumlin Road.

Since then, loyalists have manned a protest camp and staged nightly parades at Woodvale, requiring a policing operation costing millions.

“Political representatives must show leadership and actively facilitate a period of direct, meaningful and sustained dialogue”, said Dr McDonnell. She was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.