The rioting in working-class Catholic parts of Belfast came both before and after tens of thousands of Protestants of the Orange Order brotherhood marched across Northern Ireland in an annual show of communal strength. It was the worst rioting in Belfast since the same event exactly a year ago.
The rioters, influenced by Irish Republican Army dissidents opposed to compromise, were chiefly motivated to attack the police themselves. IRA dissidents have focussed in recent months on trying to lure police into ambushes.