THE loss of an eye by Co Armagh man Mr Martin Toner after being struck by a plastic bullet has renewed controversy over the use of the weapon by the RUC in Northern Ireland.

Mr Toner (25) had emergency surgery in a Belfast hospital following violence in Keady, Co Armagh, on Saturday night.

The RUC said trouble between nationalists and loyalists broke out when a minibus carrying participants from an Orange Order band competition drove into a nationalist protest taking place near a Catholic church.

RUC Chief Insp Alan Caldwell said the police had been forced to fire plastic bullets at the rioters when they came under attack.

A Sinn Fein councillor, Mr Noel Sheridan, who witnessed the incident, said the injured man was not part of the protest. He had been leaving Mass at St Patrick's Church and was standing within the church grounds.

He said the protesters were involved in a peaceful demonstration showing their opposition to the Orange band competition.

The trouble, he said, flared after the RUC allowed a loyalist band to pass through their roadblock into Patrick Street where some band members got off the bus and began to play tunes near the church.

Over 20 bands were taking part in the annual Drumderg flute band parade.

According to Chief Insp Caldwell, the bands marched from Keady Orange Hall to Drumderg Orange Hall. The route, he said, was 90 per cent in the countryside and 10 per cent infringed on the outskirts of the town.

He said the violence started at about 8.50 p.m. when up to 100 of the group broke away from the main protest and made their way up Patrick Street.

At the same time a minibus ignored a police traffic diversion "with a clear traffic signal". RUC officers chased the bus down the road to where it met the protesters and the violence broke out. The bus quickly drove away from the scene.

Last night, the United Campaign Against Plastic Bullets condemned the "attempted murder" of Mr Toner.

No official complaint has been received by the RUC, Chief Insp Caldwell told Tile Irish Times. It has asked witnesses to the incident to come forward.