The day the Troubles came back to Derry

The City of Londonderry yesterday became the crucible of Northern Ireland's nationalist emotions in a way not seen for nearly 25 years, after a Catholic man became the first fatality in the street violence now sweeping Ulster, writes Michael Streeter.

A day that began with a large-scale riot ended with a huge twilight procession to mark the death of factory worker Dermot McShane, believed to have been crushed by an Army vehicle at the riot's height.

In between, many of the city's inhabitants gazed in dismay at the wreckage of bright new shops opened in the aftermath of the 1994 IRA ceasefire, now smashed and burned by their own community in their anger at the Orange Order's victory in the confrontation at Portadown.

The procession to mark Mr McShane's death united 10,000 people and was nearly a mile in length, a display of feeling hardly seen in the walled city on the River Foyle since the time of Bloody Sunday in 1972, when British paratroopers shot 13 people dead.

Martin McGuinness, the senior Sinn Fein figure and the city's best-known republican, addressed the march from the bonnet of a car, voicing local fury at the death of Mr McShane, yet at the same time trying to prevent a repeat of the previous night's clash with police and the Army. "What we have seen today is nothing short of unadulterated murder by the British Army and the RUC," he said.

However, Sinn Fein prevailed upon the city's publicans to close their doors for the evening, with Mr McGuinness saying there was no role in nationalist protests for drunken thugs who looted and burned. "There is no place in this strategy for people who are intoxicated with drink," he said. Late last night the atmosphere in the city was still tense and the security forces were on high alert.

Mr McShane, a factory worker aged 35 who was separated from his wife and two stepchildren, is believed to have been crushed by an Army Saxon personnel carrier as 2,000 rioters rampaged through the streets.

During the worst of the disturbances in the early hours of yesterday, youths set cars on fire and, shielded by a skip and a hoarding, hurled petrol bombs at advancing security forces, who tried to drive them away with their armoured Land Rovers.

Over 1,000 petrol bombs were thrown; police and soldiers replied by firing about 1,000 plastic baton rounds. It was after an Army Saxon personnel carrier tried to remove the hoarding that Mr McShane's body was found.

Three people were seen running away from the hoarding; one remained. A witness said last night: "They must have known that someone was underneath the board."

As Mr McShane lay dying near Little James Street, an RUC officer attempting to give him first aid was stabbed in the face with a broken bottle. Both men were taken to the local Altnagelvin Hospital, where the Catholic man was declared dead. The officer needed 19 stitches.

A relative told the Independent on Sunday last night, "We do not want to make a cause of his death. It's a tragedy."

The citizens of Londonderry - or Derry, as it is always called by Catholics - must have thought in the past two years that they had put the troubles well behind them. Now, after two days of some of the worst rioting ever seen in the city, they fear that they are going back to the darkest days.