LOYALIST paramilitaries have been placed on "high alert" but are under orders to act only in defence of Protestant areas, according to sources in Belfast.
Mainstream loyalist paramilitaries denied they were intent on a major offensive campaign had the Orange march been stopped from marching through Garvaghy Road on Sunday.
Yesterday's and Sunday night's attacks by republicans on Protestant areas were the main concern of loyalist paramilitaries.
One 14-year-old Protestant boy was shot in the arm by republican gunmen in west Belfast on Sunday night.
The loyalists also say that republican gunmen fired into Protestant areas in north and east Belfast on Sunday night.
The youth who was shot, Craig McCann, was said to be one of several youths collecting wood for a July 12th bomfire when he was shot in Ainsworth Avenue near the west Belfast "peace line".
The loyalists were last night deployed in Protestant working class areas in case of republican attacks.
Loyalist sources denied that the mainstream organisations, the Ulster Volunteer Force and Ulster Defence Association, had planned any orchestrated violence if the Orangemen were banned from marching down Garvaghy Road.
Mainstream loyalists also dismissed the notion that the group calling itself the Loyalist Volunteer Force, which issued a death threat to citizens of the Republic last week if the Garvaghy march was stopped, is a real threat.
Sources say the LVF is a small group with few arms surrounding one or two dissident loyalist figures in Portadown.
While many loyalist estates in Portadown, Lurgan and Armagh are daubed with LVF graffiti, mainstream loyalists say the group is insignificant in "military terms".
Reports that loyalist paramilitaries were prepared to start a major offensive against nationalist areas if the Garvaghy march was banned were dismissed by the loyalists.
The loyalists said they were concerned that the splinter republican group, the Irish National Liberation Army, or dissident elements within the IRA would mount a provocative attack on Protestants.