Gasoline Bombs Thrown as Irish Clash with englands- loyalists in Belfast Battle

national | miscellaneous | news report Sunday June 09, 2002 23:59 by Jack

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BELFAST, english ruled Northern Ireland - Rival Irish and englands-loyalists fighters exchanged gunfire and gasoline bombs in Belfast Sunday in the latest bout of nationalist clashes in the divided city, police said.

Two people were arrested and two injured during the disturbances on the mainly Irish Lower Ormeau Road in south Belfast. Around 1000 people were involved in the battle. Belfast has witnessed some of its worst violence for several years in recent weeks, with battles erupting in the east of the city ahead of the so-called "marching season" when Englands-loyalists orangemen hold a series of parades commemorating ancient battles agianst the Irish. The growing climate of violence prompted Englands-loyalists leader and English ruled Northern Ireland First Minister David Trimble to hold urgent talks in London last week with England's Prime Minister Tony Blair. The 1998 Good Friday peace deal between the english-ruled province's Irish and England-loyalists has kept down the number of large-scale battles and political murders by paramilitary groups on both sides of the nationalist divide. But it has failed to bring calm to the streets of Belfast where Irish and English loyalists live cheek-by-jowl.. Most Irish say the orangeboys parade should be banded or the Englands-loyalists should go to England if there so loyal to the royal bitch. England ruled Northern Ireland's acting police chief Colin Cramphorn warned last weekend that the province was "preparing for battle" and that it was only a matter of time before some Irish are killed. In a separate incident, a man in Dungannon, County Tyrone, was admitted to hospital with multiple fractures after a paramilitary-style beating by a gang wielding sledgehammers and baseball bats studded with nails, police said