RIOTS AT LOVE MARCH

Feb 26 2006

Police injured in parade backlash

By Ed Carty


RIOTS erupted around a disputed unionist parade in Dublin yesterday, leaving at least four police officers injured.

Republican counter-protesters fought running battles with police through a busy shopping district, setting cars on fire and hurling fireworks and other missiles.

A thousand unionist marchers had descended on the Irish capital to accuse the government there of providing a haven for republican terrorists during the Troubles.

But the planned Love Ulster rally through the city - involving Orangemen and relatives of victims of violence - was called off as hundreds of republicans arrived to confront them.

Instead, the unionists were taken on buses to Leinster House, the Irish parliament, for a short parade.

Then, as the republicans threatened to breach the security barriers, they were hurried away.

The event was organised by the victims' group Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (FAIR).

Jeffrey Donaldson, a Democratic Unionist MP who was due to speak at the rally, said: "We have received a warm welcome from ordinary Dubliners.

"But these republicans have come from north of the Border and other areas intent on trouble."

Donaldson, Ulster Unionist deputy leader Danny Kennedy and FAIR director William Frazer went on to hand a letter of complaint to justice minister Michael McDowell.

Earlier, as the marchers travelled to Dublin, Frazer laid a wreath in memory of the victims of the Troubles on the Border at Killeen.

Outside Leinster House, rioting raged on, with a line of mounted police guarding the entrance.

Dozens of extra officers in full riot gear were called in to help quell the disturbances.

At the front of the GPO, the HQ of the 1916 Easter Rising, rioters charged police and fought hand-to-hand battles with around 100 officers.

And a fire engine called in to extinguish a blaze started by demonstrators was attacked.

Police have seized a loyalist arms cache in Belfast, it emerged yesterday.

Three men and a woman were arrested after officers raided a location in the south of the city.

Assorted guns, ammunition and a quantity of explosives were discovered.

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