Easter Sunday: Masked colour party at west Belfast parade
- Published
A masked colour party was at the head of the IRSP parade
Police are investigating a masked colour party which led an Easter Rising parade in west Belfast on Sunday.
The Irish Republican Socialist Party organised the parade on the Falls Road.
Parade participants were issued with warnings and footage was gathered by police who will review it as part of an investigation into potential offences under the Terrorism Act.
Ass Ch Con Bobby Singleton said most parades in Northern Ireland were lawful and passed off without incident.
He added that as is normal procedure, a report on the parade will be sent to the Parades Commission.
Thousands of people gathered in west Belfast to watch the annual National Graves Association Easter Rising parade.
Large crowds lined the Falls Road as the parade made its way from Beechmount Avenue to Milltown Cemetery where an address was given by Sinn Féin MP John Finucane.
"I want to salute the republican activists of Belfast who continue to assert the demand for Irish freedom, and I also want to acknowledge the pain and trauma that many families from all backgrounds carry as a result of tragic loss during the conflict by all armed groups," he said.
Mr Finucane also used his address to criticise the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) for using the Northern Ireland Protocol "to boycott the political institutions" at Stormont.
He added that the DUP saw Brexit as an opportunity to harden the Irish border.
"They must know and recognise that they failed and get on with the business of representing those who elected them within the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement," he said.
Meanwhile in the Republic of Ireland, a ceremony to mark the 107th anniversary of the Easter Rising took place on O'Connell Street in Dublin.
The event was led by Irish President Michael D Higgins, Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar, and Tánaiste (Irish Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister for Defence Micheál Martin.