Tour of the North: Planned residents' protest called off

Gerry Kelly was speaking on BBC NI's The View on Thursday night

A planned residents' protest at Friday's Tour of the North parade has been called off, the Sinn Féin's North Belfast MLA Gerry Kelly has confirmed.

The Parades Commission had applied more stringent restrictions to the Orange Order march than in previous years.

Part of the north Belfast parade's route passes by St Patrick's Catholic Church on Donegall Street.

On BBC Northern Ireland's The View, the Orange Order's Mervyn Gibson welcomed the move by the residents.

But he added that in relation to that part of the route, the residents had been granted the conditions they had asked for in the Parades Commission determination.

"Why would they protest there, when they've got everything they want?" Mr Gibson said.

He said the Orange Order was still unhappy with the determination and hoped to seek a judicial review of the decision on Friday.

"We believe it's unjust and we were told by the secretary of state that the only way to deal with the Parades Commission is through the courts. Sadly, we can't always afford it, but this time we're going to try," Mr Gibson said.

"The [residents'] protest has nothing to do the judicial review whatsoever. The judicial review is against the Parades Commission determination."

Mr Gibson added that he had had discussions with the parish priest and some parishioners about the march.

Previous parades in the area have been contentious and have breached the conditions laid down by the Parades' Commission.

As with last year's parade, only the Orangemen and their 13 notified bands can march past St Patrick's church.

They must do so to the sound of a single drum beat.

This year, all music must stop 47 yards (43m) away from the Catholic church so there is no music within earshot of it.

Sinn Féin has described the move to call off the protest as "helpful".

Mr Kelly agreed with Mr Gibson that the residents had "got everything that they asked for" in relation to the music restrictions, but he added they also had to make compromises.

"The compromise was we're not asking for a re-routing, we're not protesting against people marching down the city centre, but there needs to be a bit of respect," Mr Kelly said.

The SDLP's North Belfast MLA Alban Maginness also welcomed the resident's decision.

"I've worked with the Carrick Hill residents for a number of years and I believe them to be a very responsible group of people.

"They are not politicised, they are not people who are seeking to cause problems, they want solutions, and they simply have one principal, and that is 'respect us' and then the situation should go ahead without any major problems," Mr Maginness said.