RUC prepared for protests at controversial parade

Police and troops are being drafted into west Belfast in advance of a controversial Orange Parade.

The Whiterock Parade will pass into the nationalist side of the peaceline on the Springfield Road.

There is concern that loyalist paramilitaries are planning major violence if the parade is blocked.

A spokeswoman for the nationalist residents, Frances McAuley, said a massive demonstration is planned to protest against the Parades Commission's decision to let the march go ahead.

Tension is rife throughout Northern Ireland in the run-up to the annual Orange parade at Drumcree in Portadown, Co Armagh.

In the past few weeks scores of Catholic families have been subjected to pipe bomb attacks by loyalist paramilitaries.

Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble has called for the Drumcree Orangemen to be allowed to march down the nationalist Garvaghy Road.

The Drumcree Orangemen have been banned from marching down the road since 1998. Security chiefs fear major violence if they are blocked on July 8.

RUC Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan said trouble could be avoided at today's parade, and at Drumcree, if there was common sense and restraint on all sides.