Sinn Féin councillor for Upper Falls, Gerard O'Neill, has slammed this year's Suffolk Road parade as "blatantly sectarian" after band members arriving for the march attempted to rile the nationalist community with offensive gestures and jeers.
"The Parades Commission made it very clear that this event had to be over at 4.30pm on Saturday afternoon, but it was still going on well after 5pm, greatly disrupting the local nationalist community," said Cllr O'Neill.
However, the parade – organised by the Upper Falls Protestant Boys band, based in the Suffolk estate – was a decidedly lower-key affair than last year, with 33 bands registered to march, but less than 20 making the trip to the Black's Road estate.
"Organisers of this year's march didn't seem to get the support they were hoping for," said Cllr O'Neill, which he said may have been attributed to the full-scale street brawl of last year which saw two rival loyalist gangs coming to blows after a four-hour march.
"There was a significantly lower turnout than last year, and there wasn't a great turnout from the local community in support of the march either," he added. "Protestant people don't want the march because they know it heightens tensions, and for the same reason nationalist parades are re-routed away from that area, to be sensitive to the people who live in the Suffolk estate."
Continuing their surveillance of the nationalist residents of the Blacks Road, the PSNI this year photographed and recorded nationalists who were monitoring the march.
"The PSNI were once again videoing and photographing the nationalist people, and it has to be asked, what's that all about?
"This was meant to be a one-off parade three years ago, it's blatantly sectarian and it shouldn't be happening," he added.
However, despite concerns that last year's show of loyalist paramilitary-style regalia would once again raise its head, Cllr O'Neill admitted that, though his position allowed him to see less of the parade than last year, there seemed, this year to be significantly less on show. Controversial band, Ulster First Flute, who attended last year's parade in paramilitary-style outfits, this year sported an array of casual t-shirts and jeans.
"At the end of the day the parade went off peacefully, but that is because we ensured that it did, and that there were no problems from the nationalist side," concluded Cllr O'Neill.
