Trouble broke out in Belfast city centre on Saturday afternoon after a

loyalist band was permitted to march past a Catholic church to the same

spot where it had conducted a provocative sectarian ritual last month.

The clashes broke out during the annual marches of the anti-Catholic

Orange Order's 'senior' organisation, the Royal Black Preceptory.

The decision by the PSNI to allow the controversial Young Conway

Volunteers (YCV) band to march up to St Patrick's Church on Donegall

Street ran contrary to a recent ruling of the Parades Commission.

The commission had ordered that the parade past the church not include

the band, said to have links to the unionist paramilitary UVF (Ulster

Volunteer Force).

The YCV band became internationally notorious last month after it was

filmed circling outside the same church as part of a ritualistic insult

to Irish Catholics and Ireland's famine victims. That incident took

place on July 12, during the biggest day of the Protestant marching

season, when the Orange Order holds hundreds of marches to commemorate

a 17th century battle victory over Catholics.

saturday afternoon, the PSNI ignored a determination of the Parades

Commission which had prohibited the band from again marching past the

same church.

A number of other so-called 'kick the Pope' loyalist bands also engaged

in provocative acts outside the church and played sectarian tunes

between Clifton Street and Unity Street, a further breach of the

commission's supposedly legally-binding rulings.

Hand-to-hand fighting later erupted between a loyalist mob, which had

gathered to help defy the Parades Commission ruling, and nationalist

protestors from the local Carrick Hill community.

The PSNI also clubbed and assaulted the Carrick Hill residents, some of

whom held up a sign reading 'Respect St. Patrick's Church' before

coming under attack.

Sinn Fein's Caral Ni Chuilin called on unionist MP Nigel Dodds to make

a clear statement condemning the breaches by loyalist bands during the

parade.

"The situation arose this morning because of blatant sectarian and

provocative behaviour by a loyalist band outside St Patrick's Church in

July," she said.

"The determination set by the Parades Commission was not adhered to

today and we had a situation where there was a continuous stream of

sectarian displays outside the church by the bands involved.

"Local MP Nigel Dodds now needs to come out and make a clear statement

condemning these breaches of the determination and law breaking.

"Political unionism did not help the situation by their comments prior

to the march. They now need to use their influence to find a resolution

to these issues instead of supporting sectarian coat-trailing exercises

by any of the Loyal Orders."