Loyalist protesters confronted RUC officers in riot gear head-on outside the Fermanagh village of Maguiresbridge as they tried to block a nationalist parade yesterday afternoon. A new organisation, the Combined Loyalist Residents of Fermanagh, supported by the hardline Orange Order-linked Spirit of Drumcree faction, tried to halt the marchers on the main Enniskillen to Belfast road with a series of barricades. This caused major traffic problems.
The nationalist march from Enniskillen to the Border village of Rosslea was to commemorate the bicentenary of the Rosslea martyrs.
The procession, which was supported by Sinn Fein, had to be rerouted several times. Two police officers were injured as protesters threw bricks, bottles and stones during skirmishes on the outskirts of Maguiresbridge.
The RUC chased rioters, many of them from other parts of the North, into a field before the nationalist processionmade its way to Rosslea by a detour.
The leader of the Spirit of Drumcree faction, Mr Joel Patton, was among the protesters.
In a statement, the Combined Loyal Residents' Association of Fermanagh said it was outraged at the RUC decision to allow a "sectarian and triumphalist parade" to invade the Protestant heartland of the county.
"The local Protestant community here has already suffered enough at the hands of Irish republicans. Our Border areas have been ethnically cleansed and hundreds of our fellow-citizens have been murdered and maimed by the IRA terror gangs. We say `enough is enough'. "
The organisers of the march were forced to reroute it just outside Enniskillen as almost 400 flag-waving loyalists blocked the road. About a mile outside the town, protesters again blocked the road and confronted RUC officers.
Minor scuffles broke out. A police van was overturned and set alight.
The organisers said they were retracing the steps of three people executed in 1798 in Enniskillen. They carried three antique coffins over the 25-mile route on foot and in vans.
The divisional commander of the RUC in Enniskillen said he was saddened by the events.