Police in Belfast have praised the Provisional IRA for stopping violence during a nationalist protest last night.
The city's top police officer Mr Alan McQuillan said IRA members helped calm the situation in the flashpoint Ardoyne Road area. Mr McQuillan had warned on Thursday night that he believed major rioting was planned in that part of Belfast.
However, he says senior IRA members marshalled the nationalist protest in the area and stopped stone throwers.
Mr McQuillan said: "In one sense I'm absolutely delighted that things passed off as peacefully as they have.
"Last night we put out a very dire warning about what we believed was going to happen in Ardoyne. I believe that we were correct in our assessment of that.
"I believe that we were right to put that warning out and I hope that has made a major contribution by bringing pressure to bear on key people to stop the violence that was planned.
"I think tonight it's quite clear that there was some exchange of missiles during the parade at Ardoyne but I think that people in the republican movement, very senior members of the republican movement, Provisional IRA, were clearly involved in marshalling the protest.
"And when some young people did begin to throw missiles they moved in to stop it."
PA