BY JEAN-LOUIS SALFATI AND JAMES NEIL

BELLAGHY, Northern Ireland - "To be kicked around for so long and now to win is brilliant," said John O'Neill, a member of the Bellaghy Residents Group. He was expressing the jubilance of hundreds of Irish nationalist protesters who stopped the loyalist right-wing group Royal Black Perceptory from marching through the whole of this predominantly Catholic village on Sunday, August 11.

Bellaghy is a small village in County Derry with a population of roughly 700, some 35 miles away from Belfast. More than 90 percent of the inhabitants are Catholic.

The previous day, the Royal Ulster Constabulary police (RUC) viciously attacked residents and escorted the Apprentice Boys, another loyalist group, throughout the village. That was the fifth time this year loyalists marched inside the village and faced protests from residents.

Around 6 p.m. on August 10 five armored RUC land rovers and 40 to 50 RUC officers advanced towards some 150 protesters. Some 50 Apprentice Boys returning from Derry were behind, awaiting the cops to clear the road. Seventy protesters sat down, linked arms, and chanted "No sectarian marches!"

The RUC approached the protesting residents and without warning began to physically remove them, indiscriminately hitting them with their batons. While beating the residents, the RUC officers shouted "fenian bastards," the derogatory name the RUC uses to describe nationalist fighters. The cops tried to sandwich people on the road as another Land Rover appeared behind the protesters and people had to jump over garden fences and walls and run down side streets to escape.

Protesters came back several times close to police lines shouting "SS-RUC" and "No sectarian marches" as the Apprentice Boys and their band were escorted by the RUC throughout the village.

According to the residents, the band's banner showed that it was not from Bellaghy but from Margherafelt, a town several miles away. The Apprentice Boys were taken by bus to and from Bellaghy, proving this was an outside provocation.

Two people were sent to the hospital, one with a broken leg, and countless received bruises. "This was the most vicious assault we have faced; they showed no mercy, they held us down while they beat us on the neck, backs and legs," said Paul Smith, the Bellaghy Residents Spokesperson. "They are the Orange Order's police force." Maria O'Neill described how her finger was hit by RUC batons against a Land Rover. "They went out to hurt us," she said. In response to the RUC assault, some protesters threw stones and bottles at the cops and Apprentice Boys.

After the episode, residents did not feel despair but pledged to go back the following day to prevent another loyalist parade from marching throughout their village.

The following day during a rally after the massive anti- internment march in Belfast, Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein, saluted the residents of Bellaghy for resisting, shining a spotlight on this village.

On August 11, Bellaghy became a focal point of attention throughout Northern Ireland. By 3 p.m., 250 protesters sat down on the main street to stop the Royal Black Perceptory march. Some 60-70 Land Rovers and more than 1,000 RUC cops on foot plus helicopters accompanied the rightists.

As hours went by, more people joined the stand-off. Some came from Belfast and Dunloy. Gerard Rice, a leader of the Lower Ormeau Road's Resident Group in Belfast, was there along with Francie Molloy, a national leader of Sinn Fein. At one point there were about 550 protesters singing "We shall not be moved." The stand-off lasted throughout the day and night. "It was like a carnival, people brought blankets and Irish music played," said Paul Smith. Eventually after negotiations between the residents and the "blackmen," the latter were allowed to walk to the Orange headquarters in the middle of the village and back. But their band did not play.

The sit-down protest lasted 19 hours until Monday morning, August 12. The "blackmen" were unable to march throughout the village. To loud cheers and sustained clapping, Francie Molloy addressed the nationalist community. "What this is about," he said, "is equality of treatment for nationalists."

Summing up the achievement of the weekend, Paul Smith told the Militant, "This is a major victory... People are very jubilant... We have to stand together again."  
 
 
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