80,000 Marchers Parade Through N. Irish Towns

To the beat of pounding drums, Protestant hard-liners in this British province marched by the tens of thousands Wednesday and vowed to protest until they regain the right to parade past Roman Catholic areas.

More than 80,000 members of the Orange Order paraded through Belfast, the provincial capital, and 17 other towns to commemorate Protestant King William of Orange’s victory over Catholic King James II on July 12, 1690.

The annual demonstrations always bring rivalries between British Protestants and Irish Catholics to a boil. But with British security forces blocking several parades this year from going through or near Catholic areas, Protestant anger turned against fellow Protestants over who to blame for the past 10 days of widespread rioting.

“We meet here today under extremely difficult circumstances. Our city and our country are being ravaged by terrorism and lawlessness,” Jim Rodgers, a Belfast councilman, told fellow Orangemen in a city park.

Several militants in the audience heckled Rodgers as soon as he appealed for the riots to end.

In a sign that the turmoil might finally be subsiding, police reported all of the most volatile Protestant areas quiet as the Orangemen’s marches ceased and darkness approached.

More than 80 security personnel have been wounded during the rioting. The worst clash came overnight Tuesday in Portadown, where a mob burned an effigy of a policeman and then threw gasoline bombs, firecrackers and at least one homemade grenade at security forces.

Orangemen insisted that their demonstrations should be treated as inoffensive, colorful pageants.