Gallery: Ardoyne suspect package a hoax as Orange march passes off peacefully

A morning parade at Ardoyne in North Belfast, an interface area between nationalists and unionists which has seen severe violence in recent years, passed off peacefully after an agreement between members of the local community.

There was a security alert in Glenbryn Parade following the discovery of a suspicious package and a number of homes were evacuated. The package was declared a hoax by police. 

There was a heavy police presence but bandsmen and Orangemen processed past a handful of nationalist residents to be greeted by loyalist supporters.

Loyalist bandsmen from nearby Shankill and Ballysillan banged the Lambeg drum on the arterial Crumlin Road, followed by lines of white-shirted men wearing the Order's collarette, while only a handful of nationalist residents looked on.

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Fr Gary Donegan, a Catholic priest who has spent years working in Ardoyne, said: "Every step that happens here, no matter how small, it is is massive."

There was a heavy police presence, mainly confined to residential side streets off the Crumlin Road.

But officers trained for riots never left their vehicles, remaining spectators to the noisy pageantry with which unionists celebrate their culture but which nationalists blamed for so much strife in recent years.

Fr Donegan added: "Every step I would count as a success.

"There are always going to be issues about parading. It is unique in Ardoyne in the sense that there were people who were killed in the vicinity of where the parades take place, so there is hyper-sensitivity about that."

He said there were more important issues for people in an area of social deprivation, like improving education, employment and housing and luring investors into a place previously blighted by violence.

"This area has nothing, it has no football pitch, it has no swimming baths, there is no infrastructure.

"The more normality takes place the more likelihood you will get a more thriving society.

"Who would want to come in and invest in a place where there is lockdown and possible civil disobedience?

"It is cutting off your nose to spite your face."

Today was the first real test of a deal reached in September last year between the Orange Order and residents to end a three-year stand-off at the Twaddall interface.

A loyalist camp was dismantled just hours after three lodges made an early morning return parade, ending a dispute over a banned march that cost more than £22m to police.

The deal between Orangemen and the Crumlin and Ardoyne Residents Association, backed by local politicians as well as the British and Irish governments, involved a voluntary moratorium on future return parades.

Although another residents' group, Greater Ardoyne Residents Collective, rejected the deal, there was no organised nationalist protest.

The evening parade will then disperse before Ardoyne in the loyalist Woodvale area, although last year two of the three Ligoniel lodges chose to stop at the Orange Hall on the the Shankill Road, which helped ease tensions at the interface further.

In the past the area has seen some of the worst parade-related violence in Northern Ireland, with clashes between republicans and police until 2013, when the return parade was banned, replaced with rioting between loyalists and the PSNI.

However, last July there was relative peace at the interface, allowing breathing space for talks to reach a resolution.

SDLP MLA Nichola Mallon said: "Hopefully marking a new era when it comes to parading and community in North Belfast."

Orange Order chaplain Mervyn Gibson said everyone was "looking forward to a great day with the sun shinning, good music and the banners flying high".

"As far as I'm concerned the deal will hold up and there are no difficulties.

"The issue of parades is still there and needs resolved at a later date but we are not going to resolve anything around the Twelfth and never will so I would call on everyone to just go out and have a great day."

Fr Gary Donegan: