Petrol bombs, burning cars and plastic bullets - these were scenes many people thought belonged to the past. But on Thursday night in Ardoyne, north Belfast, nationalist youths and the RUC were involved in a confrontation as fierce as any in the 30-year conflict. It was as if the peace process didn't exist. The RUC said 113 of its officers were injured - 19 received hospital treatment. Sinn Fein and the SDLP said dozens of civilians were hurt, many by plastic bullets - 10 received hospital treatment. Police said 263 petrol bombs and two blast bombs were thrown. The RUC fired 48 plastic bullets and two water cannon were used. Both sides are blaming each other. But what really happened in Ardoyne?
The RUC says it was merely attempting to uphold a Parades Commission ruling to allow 100 Orangemen, on their way back from the main Twelfth demonstration in Belfast, to walk along the Crumlin Road, passing the bottom of Ardoyne. Nationalists objected to the march. The Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, yesterday presented his force as caught in the middle of two warring communities.
"My officers are not responsible for the political divisions in this part of the world. My officers are by far the greatest victims of the violence that ensues from inter-communal hatred. Any suggestion that my officers were doing anything other than acting to enforce a lawful determination of the Parades Commission is absolute rubbish."
Sir Ronnie said the RUC came under a "sustained and vicious attack" from nationalist youths and responded "proportionately" with water cannon and plastic bullets. The violence was well planned, he said, and he would be "vigorously" investigating the possibility of Provisional IRA orchestration. An entirely different scenario is presented by nationalist politicians in Ardoyne. SDLP councillor Mr Martin Morgan said hundreds of RUC officers saturated the area around 5 p.m. - nearly three hours before the Orange parade was due.
He said they took over people's gardens and blocked several streets. "The aggression was unbelievable. I prevented the RUC from assaulting residents whose only `crime' was to verbally challenge their presence. I even got hit myself with a riot shield." Mr Morgan said youths started throwing bottles and stones at police but it wasn't until the RUC used water cannon and plastic bullets that serious trouble started.
The SDLP representative said there was "absolutely no IRA involvement" in the rioting and stewards who tried to contain the situation lost control. He claimed the RUC fired plastic bullets at the upper, and not lower body, of civilians. "The RUC was not caught in the middle between loyalists and republicans. The RUC provoked the entire situation and turned a peaceful protest into a violent event," he said.
Sinn Fein Assembly member Mr Gerry Kelly claimed the rioting was totally spontaneous, and his party tried in vain to stop it. "I challenge anybody to say anything other than people were trying to calm the situation down," he said. "The RUC went in ham-fistedly. People were beaten in their own gardens."
Mr Kelly was told several times to "f . . . off" when he tried to stop rioters. An angle grinder was used to cut down lampposts and the RUC has said the fact that such a tool was at hand - along with petrol and blast bombs - proved the rioting was orchestrated.
Republican sources say an angle grinder is a tool commonly possessed by builders and it would not need the Provisional IRA to secure one. "Anybody can make a petrol bomb," said one source. "And it wasn't as if petrol bombs were thrown immediately. It was hours later that they appeared." Youths went to the back of a local social club to take bottles, he said, "not a sign of an orchestrated riot".
RUC sources have claimed it was "very helpful" for Sinn Fein that rioting occurred on the eve of the Weston Park talks. "It gives the party more leverage to argue for even greater policing reform," said one officer.
However, Sinn Fein and the SDLP both claim the rioting was "convenient" for certain RUC elements as it strengthened their hand to argue against further policing reform. While republican sources insist the Provisional IRA did not orchestrate the rioting, it has been suggested that the paramilitary group did not seriously attempt to stop it.
On previous occasions on the Lower Ormeau and Garvaghy roads, Provisional IRA members physically prevented youths from rioting. The sources have suggested this didn't happen in Ardoyne because it would have been too unpopular. Both the "Real IRA" and Continuity IRA are growing in the area and the Provisional IRA did not wish to strengthen them. Dissidents were present at Thursday's protest and the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, last night sent a message of solidarity to Ardoyne. "It is heartening to see grassroots remain defiant and refuse to bow down to British paramilitary police," it said.
Sources said there is some internal dissent in Provisional ranks in Ardoyne. Tensions have also been running high since loyalists prevented local Catholic children from entering the Holy Cross School by the front door.
Yesterday, nationalist politicians didn't rule out further trouble but thought it would be nowhere on the scale of Thursday's disturbances. Yet that violence shouldn't be taken out of context. A Downing Street spokesman pointed out that overall, the marching season had been "relatively quiet" compared to previous years. From a British government perspective, it could have been much worse.