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Video: Fr Gary Donegan welcomes peaceful Twelfth morning in Ardoyne

Fr Gary Donegan has been speaking after a contentious parade passed off peacefully.

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

Fr Donegan said every step was a success.

"Every step that happens here, no matter how small, it is is massive."

He added: "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."