6 April 2001

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North Belfast parade decision slammed

Ligoniel Sinn Fein representative Eoin O'Broin has hit out at today's Parades Commission decision to allow a march by the Ligoniel Apprentice Boys on Monday 16th April 2001 to go ahead despite objections by nationalist residents.

Mr O'Broin said:

``The decision by the Parades Commission to allow a loyalist parade through the nationalist Mountainview area and past the Ardoyne shops area is the wrong one.

``There is no justification for such a parade. The Apprentice Boys are being deliberately provocative by marching through a nationalist area, an area which has suffered more than most at the hands of loyalist death squads, when it would be easier to go straight onto their buses and travel to the main parade in Limavady.

He concluded:

``Past loyalist parades through this area has served no other purpose other than to raise sectarian tensions, with those following the parade often engaging in sectarian violence and insults. We would call upon the Parades Commission to rethink this decision and, indeed to rethink the reasoning for future parades through thi

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