Four people were arrested and one police officer was injured as violence flared in Portadown, Co Armagh last night, when police and nationalist youths clashed in the Corcrain area of the town.
Trouble broke out shortly before 9 p.m. after a number of nationalist youths gathered close to Corcrain Orange Hall, where members of the Orange Order were holding a St Patrick's night celebration.
Stones, bottles and petrol bombs were thrown at police lines by some of youths from the Garvaghy Park area. At about 9.30 p.m. there was a further concerted attack. Following a baton charge several nationalists were arrested by the RUC.
Shortly after 10 p.m. the RUC moved in to disperse the Orangemen and their supporters, who had gathered outside the Orange hall, driving them back towards Portadown town centre. At this stage the majority of nationalists dispersed. By midnight, both the nationalist and loyalist crowds had dispersed.
Earlier in the day, scuffles broke out between nationalists, loyalists and the RUC at a St Patrick's Day parade in Kilkeel, Co Down. Loyalists tried to block the march and heckled and spat at members of a band of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) as it marched up the town's main street.
Loyalists had objected to the parade, which included two bands, passing a graveyard where seven people killed by the IRA are buried. A memorial to victims of republican violence was also on the parade route.
Earlier, the RUC had cordoned off a section of the town following a series of bomb alerts. An object was found in a bush near the road and was examined by British Army bomb experts.
RUC officers in riot gear moved in to keep the crowd of around 100 loyalist youths back from the parade.
The parade was given the final go-ahead on Thursday when the High Court in Belfast turned down an application for a judicial review of the Parades Commission decision. The case was brought in the name of a woman whose son, an RUC officer, was killed by the IRA.