Orange Order matches

The three nights of heavy rioting which took place in Ardoyne in North Belfast over the Twelfth showed how the main parties in the Assembly are being challenged by more hard-line sectarian forces on the ground. The decision of Sinn Fein to organise a token protest against the Orange Order marching past the Ardoyne shops effectively gave the green light to the PSNI to ‘deal’ with dissident republican groups who had prepared in advance attacks on the Orange Order and the PSNI.