Such is the nature of the dilemmas facing the Parades Commission that in many cases their decisions appear to please very few of the people directly involved in the issues on which they adjudicate.
Comments following a commission decision to allow an Apprentice Boys parade in east Belfast – after a revised route had been submitted – illustrate this.
A Short Strand councillor asked why the Apprentice Boys wanted to parade past the nationalist area three times in the afternoon as planned in the original route and he criticised the fact that the organisation was allowed to do so once in the revised plan.
An Apprentice Boys spokesman was even more scathing in his criticism of the Parades Commission, asserting that it had completely misjudged the atmosphere in east Belfast and claiming that relationships between his organisation and the commission were in a poor state.
But the important thing is that despite all the public rancour there was no trouble on the streets of east Belfast.
True, there was a large security force presence but this has never been a guarantee of peace in the past.
Councillor Joe O'Donnell paid tribute to nationalist and unionist representatives who he said had worked behind the scenes to ensure there was no violence.
But credit must also go to the residents of east Belfast who refused to be drawn into another conflict on their own streets, a conflict which has already had serious effects on the area fringing Short Strand.
There is a significant number of contentious parades still to be negotiated in the coming summer months.
Each has the potential to plunge the entire community into conflict.
Whenever the Parades Commission makes its decisions on those parades it is entirely probable that they will anger one or both sides of the dispute.
That is regrettable but it is essential that, just as on Saturday in east Belfast, people use common sense and do nothing which could have serious implications for their own community and further afield.
