Tensions were high in west Belfast last night after the Parades Commission reversed an earlier decision and decided to allow the annual Orange Order Whiterock parade pass through part of the nationalist Springfield Road this afternoon.
A heavy police presence will be in place at the Catholic-Protestant interface in west Belfast today as the Orange parade marches from the Shankill area onto the Springfield Road.
The British and Irish governments will be monitoring the parade closely because they are aware, particularly with Drumcree Sunday only eight days away, that any violence today has the potential to spark a summer of disturbances and violence.
Nationalists are expected to stage a protest while the march is taking place. Nationalist politicians and community representatives expressed shock and anger at the decision, although, in general, there were urgings from all sides that both parade and protest be peaceful.
Mr Seán Paul O'Hare of the Springfield Residents group said he expected that local people would act, as they had always done, with dignity and he was expecting a "peaceful protest".
Mr Dawson Baillie of the Orange Order said the order would meet the conditions laid down by the Parades Commission and that his members would do everything in their power to ensure the parade was peaceful.
The Parades Commission said it reversed its decision because of changed circumstances surrounding the parade, which was originally banned because the Orange Order refused to talk to nationalist residents and because there were UVF trappings at last year's parade.
The commission viewed as a "genuine and sincere" development the fact that the newly formed North and West Belfast Parades Forum, which includes representatives from the Orange Order as well as unionist and loyalist political and community leaders, had dealt directly with the Springfield Residents' Action Group in recent days.
The commission added that assurances were given by loyalist political and community leaders that the bannerette featuring UVF leader Brian Robinson, who was shot dead by an undercover British soldier after he murdered Catholic man Patrick McKenna in 1989, would be removed.
In addition the Ballysillan Volunteers Flute Band, which breached last year's determination that there must be no UVF displays at the parade, has been removed from the parade. The commission also insisted that all paramilitary flags and emblems be removed tomorrow.
"Any breaches of the determination, or a failure to continue the engagement with residents which has now begun, will impact on future parades. The Parades Commission is hopeful that the Whiterock parade will pass off as peacefully in 2004 as it did last year," it said.
The Sinn Féin president, Mr Gerry Adams, described the commission's decision as an "act of moral cowardice" and claimed it "succumbed to sectarian threats". Mr Adams, however, appealed for "nationalists and republicans to be disciplined".
The DUP MP for North Belfast Mr Nigel Dodds welcomed the decision and also appealed for calm on all sides. He said a peaceful parade today would set the tone for a "quiet summer".
