Loyalists rioted on July 13 in north Belfast, . The loyalists β largely anti-Catholic supporters of Britain's ongoing rule over the six counties in Ireland's north β drove a vehicle into residents in the predominantly Catholic and Irish nationalist Ardoyne area, seriously injuring a teenage girl.
The riot came after anti-Catholic Orange Order marchers were blocked from passing through the Ardoyne. The marchers sought to deny a Parades Commission ruling banning the route.
Within minutes of the annual parade β which marks the victory of Protest forces over Catholic opponents in the 1690 battle of the Boyne β reaching the police lines, bottles, bricks and metal bolts were thrown at police, who responded with water cannon.
Earlier, several loyalist bands breached a Parades Commission ruling by playing music while passing St Patrickβs Catholic Church in north-west Belfast. The bands played sectarian tunes near the church, a site of several sectarian displays by loyalist marchers in recent years.
The violence followed almost unprecedented displays of sectarianism at loyalist bonfires over the July 11-12 weekend. A record number of Irish flags, nationalist election posters and republican figures in effigy were burned.
The most controversial was the advertised βexecutionβ of Sinn Fein election candidate Michelle Gildernew, who was depicted in effigy on a gallows on a bonfire in Moygashel, County Fermanagh.
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