Overnight rioting ushers in biggest day of marching season

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Police used water cannons on Protestant protestors who hurled stones and firebombs at them early on Thursday morning, ushering in one of the tensest days on Northern Ireland's political calendar.

Earlier on Wednesday night, masked members of a Loyalist paramilitary group staged a show of strength in the Shankill area of Belfast, firing handguns into the air.

The overnight violence and protest ushered in what is traditionally one of the tensest days on Northern Ireland's political calendar, the Twelfth, when the Orange Order stages fife­and­drum parades in towns, villages and cities all over the province to commemorate a 1690 military victory over Catholic forces.

In past years, the Protestant marches have been a flashpoint for violence, especially when the parades skirt close to Roman Catholic areas.

This year's marching season has been relatively calm so far, but thousands of police and soldiers fanned out to watch over Thursday's marches, the largest one­day concentration of parades.

In the town of Portadown ­ scene of one of the season's more contentious marches ­ police fired water cannon at dozens of Protestant protesters after they were attacked with firebombs. The fighting, described by a police spokesman as "short but intense," broke out about 1am, at one of hundreds of bonfires lit by marchers on the parades' eve.

Portadown's main parade took place on Sunday, and police and soldiers set up a metal barricade and razor wire to prevent marchers from going down the main road in a Catholic area. Since then, there have been sporadic protests at the site.

The marches come against the backdrop of anger and recrimination in the political arena. Three days of negotiations by Prime Minister Tony Blair, Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern and the North's main political parties failed to break a deadlock over the IRA's refusal to begin disarming. The talks adjourned at lunch on Wednesday, and were expected to reconvene on Friday.

The parades' organiser, the Orange Order says it will launch a court fight against future restrictions on its marching routes. In Londonderry, where most marchers were to be prevented from entering the city center, the group was delivering a letter of protest to the mayor and planning a demonstration at a bridge separating the mainly Protestant Waterside area from a predominantly Catholic neighborhood on the other bank.

Other potential hot spots were a predominantly Catholic area of north Belfast, where the province's worst sectarian riots in three years broke out late last month, and Belfast's mainly Catholic Lower Ormeau Road.

Streets were mainly devoid of traffic as the marches were beginning. Many Catholics leave Northern Ireland during this period, and businesses and shops were shut for the holiday.