The funeral of Joey Dunlop and the associated calls for calm which it brought meant yesterday was one of the quietest days for almost a week in the North. There was little to impede the homeward progress of drivers from Belfast, with buses and trains mostly operating normally.
Bus services to Ligoniel in north Belfast were halted after a bus and car were hijacked and set alight at about 5 p.m. The road was later reopened and services were restored. However, all the night bus services in Belfast were cancelled.
A small number of road-blocks were erected in north Belfast and on the Malone Road in the south of the city at the loyalist Taughmonagh estate.
Additional road-blocks went up later last night, with Lisburn, Larne, Ballyclare, Newtownabbey and the Doagh Road in Co Antrim all affected. There were also road-blocks in Dungannon and Portadown in Co Armagh and in Newtownards, Co Down.
Police recovered a number of petrol-bombs in the Shankill area of west Belfast earlier yesterday. The RUC said 37 officers and two soldiers had been injured in street violence up to yesterday. The injuries were sustained during 145 attacks on the security forces, including 12 gun attacks over five nights of trouble.
There were 140 petrol-bombing incidents and 268 primed petrol-bombs were seized by the security forces. A total of 171 vehicles were damaged during disturbances and there were 50 hijackings. Damage was caused to 43 homes.
Up to yesterday 54 people had been arrested for public order offences - 33 had been charged and 21 reported with a view to prosecution.
An RUC spokesman confirmed that the guidelines on the use of plastic bullets had been changed. Previously, their use had been at the discretion of officers of inspector rank. It now lay with a chain of senior commanders, starting at assistant chief constable level. These rules, which bring practice into line with Britain, are partly responsible for the fact that only three plastic bullets were fired during the recent disturbances.
On Thursday night, shots were fired at police in the North Howard Street area near the Falls Road/Shankill Road interface, but there were no injuries. Mr Frank McCann, a local Sinn Fein councillor, said that a group of around 50 loyalists had broken through the security gates. He called for these to be secured.
In the Fortwilliam area of north Belfast two police officers were injured and one person arrested after a crowd tried to hijack a police vehicle. Petrolbombs were thrown at police stations at Lisnasharragh and Willowfield and officers were attacked by a crowd throwing petrol-bombs at Sydenham bypass. In a follow-up operation, 12 petrol-bombs were recovered under a footbridge, while similar devices were found in Victoria Park in east Belfast. Rioting was reported in the Whitewell Road area of Newtownabbey.
There were reports of shots being fired in the village of Mosside, near Ballymoney. A petrol-bomb was thrown at St Joseph's Catholic Church at Greystones Road in Antrim. The device caused little damage.
Police were also investigating the cause of a fire which extensively damaged Killygullib Orange Hall in Co Derry.