An Apprentice Boys parade down the Ormeau Road in Belfast passed off without incident yesterday after the organisers accepted a ruling by the Parades Commission banning them from a nationalist section of the road.
It was the first parade of the marching season along the controversial route where nationalist residents have opposed loyal order marches through their area.
One band and some 15 members of the Apprentice Boys took part in the parade from Ballynafeigh to the Ormeau Bridge, where police had erected barriers across the road. The Apprentice Boys then boarded buses to go to the organisation's main parade in Ballymena, Co Antrim.
The police presence on the bridge was low-key as the Apprentice Boys had previously said they would abide by the ruling and the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community group (LOCC) said it would not hold any protest.
The Apprentice Boys handed in a letter of protest to the RUC, and Mr Worthington McGrath, of the Ballynafeigh Walkers Club of the Apprentice Boys, said they were "bitterly disappointed" they could not walk into the city centre through the lower Ormeau.
"We have gone to great lengths to try and meet the wishes of the Parades Commission, and we have been rebuffed," Mr McGrath said. He hoped they would be able to walk down the Lower Ormeau Road on another occasion this year. They were having "ongoing meetings with the greater community in the Ormeau area" in an attempt to satisfy the Commission, he said.
Mr Gerard Rice, of the LOCC, welcomed the Apprentice Boys' action, but said the loyal orders would have to meet his group if the issue was to be resolved. "Turning away at the bridge will not resolve the issue. Direct dialogue is necessary."
Mr Rice said that if the Parades Commission followed its own guidelines, there could be no marches on the Ormeau Road this year because the loyal orders refused to talk to residents.
The Parades Commission banned the march 10 days ago on the basis that it would have harmful effects on "relationships with the community". In the ruling, the Commission said it hoped at least one parade would go ahead on the Ormeau Road this year.
The chairman of the Parades Commission, Mr Alistair Graham, who watched yesterday's parade, said he was encouraged by the "mature and sensible action" taken by the Apprentice Boys. Dr Alisdair McDonnell, an SDLP councillor, said he welcomed the Commission's decision and urged the Apprentice Boys and the Orange Order to talk to residents' groups about future marches. The RUC's sub-divisional commander in the area, Supt Steven Graham, said the Apprentice Boys had shown "a high degree of integrity".