Irish Protestants On Rampage Vow To Bring Northern Ireland To A Standstill If March Is Blocked

With Belfast still smoking from overnight riots, Protestants blocked streets Tuesday and threatened to bring Northern Ireland to a standstill if police don’t let them march through a Roman Catholic neighborhood.

Police said they were too busy to keep count of those injured or arrested in two days of the worst street violence in Northern Ireland in a decade.

Members and supporters of the Orange Order, the province’s largest Protestant fraternal group, said Orangemen must be allowed to parade along the Garvaghy Road in Portadown, a predominantly Protestant town 25 miles southwest of Belfast.

The annual march, which commemorates 17th-century Protestant victories over Irish Catholics, goes through the town’s Catholic quarter.

Riot police blocked the march on Sunday in hopes of preventing Catholic riots. Instead, Protestant rage engulfed the province.

“The Orange Order is the strongest and largest institution in Northern Ireland,” said Jeffrey Donaldson, deputy grand master of the group that claims more than 80,000 members.

“It is correct to say that because of the strength of our membership, there are many things that we can do,” Donaldson said. “If necessary, in support of the Orangemen of Portadown, we will bring Northern Ireland to a standstill.”

Prime Minister John Major called the violence “indefensible” and pleaded for dialogue to defuse the tension.

At the confrontation line at the Drumcree Anglican church north of Portadown, Orangemen taunted police, at times intimidating officers by shouting their names, addresses and wives’ names.

Catholics threatened by mobs in predominantly Protestant parts of north Belfast fled their homes Tuesday.