The Five Demands

Petrol bombs thrown after Derry parade (UTV)

A number of petrol bombs have been thrown and several people arrested in Londonderry following the annual Apprentice Boys parade.
Police say they have arrested four men for riotous and disorderly behaviour after the incidents in the Bogside and the Lecky Road area on Saturday evening.

Earlier six people were arrested for minor public order offences in the city after the parade passed off without major incident.

Around 15,000 people attended the main Apprentice Boys march – the biggest loyal order parade in Northern Ireland – with around 140 bands accompanying them as they paraded through the city centre.

UTV Reporter Gareth Wilkinson said the atmosphere was relatively tension free at this year’s parade.

He said that for the first time in a number of years, spit barriers, which normally separate rival crowds were not erected in the Diamond area of the city.

Jim Brownlee, Governor of the Apprentice Boys, said that a lot of work had gone on behind the scenes to prepare the city for the event.

“Reaching out to the wider community is very important in order for them to gain an understanding of why we are celebrating today and why we are commemorating,” he added.

In the morning thousands gathered as local Apprentice Boys clubs held a smaller parade along the city’s historic walls amid a highly visible police presence in and around the city.

A suspect object found in the city’s walls in the morning was declared a hoax and police confirmed that there was also an attempt to petrol bomb a parked car in the Bogside.

The device was thrown at a Volkswagen Beetle, smashing the rear window in Fahan Street at around 3pm. However, it failed to ignite.

A number of youths were seen in the area with a petrol bomb and police are asking anyone who witnessed the incident or has any information to contact them.

The annual Apprentice Boys parade is held to mark the lifting of the siege of Derry over 300 years ago.

This was once a highly contentious parade but many of those issues were resolved following years of negotiations between the Apprentice Boys and nationalist residents groups.

However violence also broke out in the Bogside area towards the end of the parade last year as police were attacked with petrol bombs and a pipe bomb.