A LOYALIST protest demonstration at the Ormeau Bridge in Belfast last night passed off peacefully, but its organisers, warned that a Protestant "civil rights" campaign will be mounted throughout the North over the banning or rerouting of some Orange parades.
Less than 100 people walked from the Upper Ormeau Road in a silent parade. It had originally intended to pass through the Catholic Lower Ormeau district but was served with a rerouting order by the RUC.
A double line of RUC armoured Land Rovers one line at each end of the bridge - barred the marchers from entering the Catholic area and Catholic residents from approaching the protesters. Only a handful of Lower Ormeau residents watched.
The loyalists, carrying a banner marked "ORDER - Ormeau Residents Demand Equal Rights" approached the police barrier and were turned away. They then held an hour long rally on the spot, during which several speakers claimed that their civil rights were being infringed by the denial of certain routes to their parades.
Ms Joy Foulton Challis quoted the "I have a dream" speech by Martin Luther King and said it would be fatal to underestimate the determination of the Ulster Protestant people.
"1996 is not an end, but a beginning," she said. "There will be neither rest nor tranquillity in Ulster until the Ulster Protestant is granted equal rights." But she told the crowd: "We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence."
The governor of the Derry Apprentice Boys, Mr Alistair Simpson, urged unionist politicians to get behind the Protestant people. He predicted that within a few years the ordinary Northern Protestants "will show the politicians where to go". The parades issue had to be ended by people's power, he said.
The Rev Billy Hoey said there were those on the other side of this bridge, and in other parts of this province, who have denied us our civil right to walk the queen's highway".
"We have all been denied our civil rights today, and this is happening more and more in this province we love."
He said successive Westminster governments had capitulated time and again "to threats of violence from Republican IRA/Sinn Fein stopping law-abiding people going about their lawful duties and their lawful rights by walking down any road in this province whether it be to a place of worship, or a place of demonstration".
Ms Pauline Gilmore asserted that the Lower Ormeau community was "riddled with Sinn Fein, IRA and republicans". Sinn Fein and the IRA were using the "concerned community" organisations in Northern Ireland to create "no go" areas for the Protestant people.
"It is a hard line militant group that we are up against," she said. "They have no intention of accommodating the Protestant identity.
"We will continue to peacefully demonstrate all over Ulster for our Protestant civil rights."
As the rally dispersed, the organisers said they would hold another protest march in three weeks' time.