A controversial Orange parade along west Belfast's "peace line" has passed off relatively peacefully, although minor trouble flared between the RUC and around 300 nationalists staging protests along the route.
There had been a tense build-up to Saturday's march, with several nights of disturbances in the area between the nationalist Springfield Road and loyalist Shankill Road, which were both touched by the march. In the event, riot police formed a cordon across the Springfield Road, keeping the sides 200 yards apart.
Members of the nationalist Springfield Residents' Action Group carried a banner demanding a rerouteing of all "sectarian marches". Minor skirmishes occurred when protesters hurled fireworks, bottles, cans and debris at police lines, damaging several RUC Land-Rovers.
A Sinn Fein MLA, Mr Gerry Kelly, suffered a head wound, allegedly when struck by a police baton. Mr Kelly claimed the incident occurred when he had turned his back on police lines to calm the crowd. However, an RUC spokesman said the police had received no reports of anybody being injured.
Police had faced "sporadic and vicious" attacks by missile-throwing protesters from both sides, with some missiles landing among protesters, he added.
Orange bands in the march decided not to walk through some of the contested streets after the Parades Commission had prohibited them from playing music there. They were bussed back to assembly points in loyalist areas. Orangemen handed over a letter of protest to the RUC, condemning the restrictions imposed on them.
However, nationalist residents were angry at a Tannoy system which played loyalist songs clearly audible in nationalist areas, alleging that this constituted a breach of the Parades Commission's restrictions.
A local Ulster Unionist councillor, Mr Jim Rodgers, who took part in the parade, said the music played through loudspeakers had nothing to do with the Orange Order.
A nationalist residents' representative, Mr John McGivern, said the fact that bands chose to be bussed back to loyalist areas proved the residents' point that there was an alternative route.
Sinn Fein representatives described the Parades Commission's decision to allow the march as "completely wrong" and called on the commission to ban all future loyalist marches through the area.
The march was observed by the former head of the US drug enforcement agency, Mr Tom Constantine, who is now overseeing police reform in the North.