Loyalists fired up for parade

Bonfires were lit in loyalist areas across the the North last night as a traditional prelude to the annual July 12 Orange parades.

Hundreds of fires, large and small, lit up the night sky as crowds gathered ahead of parades by tens of thousands of members of the Orange Order tomorrow morning.

The marching season so far this year has been the most peaceful in decades, but Sinn Féin claimed loyalist paramilitaries had heightened tensions and threatened the father of a Co Derry Catholic after he removed his son's name from the top of a bonfire in Coleraine.

The 16-year-old who died of heart failure two weeks ago was one of two dead Catholics named in sectarian graffiti with the comment "who's next", claimed Coleraine councillor Billy Leonard.

Mr Leonard said: "This whole incident is sickening and pathetic. It was bad enough that this young lad's name appeared on the bonfire in a distinctly sectarian and sinister way - then the father has to take the pressure of a police had delivered notification of a loyalist threat claiming he had removed 'articles' from a bonfire."

Meanwhile, the Orange Order tried to make the annual event more of a celebration with a reception for international visitors at Belfast City Hall and a formal firework display at a bonfire in east Belfast.

Police chiefs appealed for calm as some 75,000 Orangemen and band members prepared to march and said they expected it to remain peaceful.

Speeches at rally points across the province tomorrow will reflect the new political reality of returned devolution, but tonight there was an outspoken attack on First Minister Ian Paisley from a former senior member of his Democratic Unionist party.

Euro-MP Jim Allister quit the party in protest at the DUP going into government with Sinn Féin and mocked the relationship between Mr Paisley and Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.

Speaking at a bonfire event at Ladyhill in South Antrim declared: "What a year it has been. Last year Ian Paisley was for laying his dead body in Sinn Féin's path into government.

"Today, joined at the hip, he's Marty's buddy. The glee says it all; giggling constantly with IRA leader McGuinness. Shame on him!"

He added: "Certainly Marty has every reason to be ecstatic. He's laughing at us all, but particularly at how easily he ensnared the supposed strongman of unionism."

Mr Allister said some carried away by power thought it was wonderful - he thought it awful.

He claimed there would be hypocrisy in speeches at Orange demonstrations tomorrow "when those who elevated IRA/Sinn Féin into government will beat their chests and tell us how strong and unchanged they are - I wish".

Meanwhile on what is traditionally the busiest night of the year for the fire service there were concerns about the pollution some bonfires would cause.

One bonfire in particular in Antrim was made up of many thousands of wooden pallets and vehicle tyres which, it was feared, would cover large areas of the town with noxious and dangerous fumes.