Belfast police, Catholics clash at end of parades

[ej510]

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Police firing plastic bullets and powerful water cannons have forced Catholic militants away from a key Belfast road as Northern Ireland's annual day of Protestant marches reaches a tense climax.

Tuesday's clashes on the Crumlin Road came at the end of daylong peaceful parades by tens of thousands from the Orange Order, a Protestant brotherhood that marches each July 12 in commemoration of 17th-century military victories over Catholics.

Catholic youths deluged riot police with bottles and bricks as one small Protestant parade passed Ardoyne, a traditional Irish Republican Army power base in north Belfast.

Police braced for potentially several hours of street clashes there. Violence stirred by IRA dissidents has ravaged Ardoyne each July 12 for the past three years.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43719755/ns/world_news-europe/