UK: Eight officers injured as loyalists clash with police in Belfast

Eight police officers were injured after loyalists, a subset of the pro-UK unionist movement, unleashed a barrage of missiles at police in north Belfast, Monday. Police responded with water cannon and rubber bullets and a helicopter was dispatched to monitor the scene. The stand-off began after unionist marching bands, known as Orangemen, were prevented from marching down a contentious stretch of road on the return leg of Monday's Twelfth of July parade. The Northern Ireland Parades Commission banned the Orangemen from marching down the road, an interface between unionist and pro-Irish nationalist communities, for the third year in a row in the hope of preventing clashes with the nationalist community of the Ardoyne neighbourhood. The ban has been met with anger within the unionist community in recent years, with serious clashes recorded in 2013. Every summer on July 12, unionist marching bands take to the streets of Northern Ireland to celebrate the Twelfth of July, the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne which saw the Catholic King James II defeated by the Protestant William of Orange in 1690. As July 12 fell on a Sunday this year the parades were moved back to Monday. The celebration has caused controversy in Northern Ireland, with the nationalist community stating that the bonfires and parades are both provocative and contentious. The celebrations are often accompanied by clashes between unionists and nationalists at interfaces across the country.