ONE of the main Protestant Loyal Orders faces a parade being banned from passing through an area of Glasgow's east end on Remembrance Day.
Fears of potential disorder have forced Police Scotland to step in to try to stop a loyalist parade passing through the Gallowgate area for the second time in three months.
Glasgow City Council is now expected to prevent an Apprentice Boys of Derry event through the area. The organisation has refused an offer of an alternative route, with a crucial meeting on the topic scheduled for next week.
Apprentice Boys want the route to pass down the area's Bain Street on November 10. However, this will take them past pubs described as having an Irish Republican-supporting clientele.
The police want to avoid any potential flashpoints by directing them along nearby Moir Street.
It is a return procession following a Remembrance Day service at Glasgow Cathedral.
Council officials will make a final decision on whether the parade can take the route through the Gallowgate to Bridgeton.
But they are thought to be puzzled as to why the Apprentice Boys insist on the contentious route. Sources claim the group, set up to commemorate the 1689 Siege of Derry, has never before been in front of the public processions committee.
This is the last resort in breaking deadlock over contentious marches, and is one of the most flexible organisations when in discussions with the council.
There is also no tradition or previous experience of the submitted route being used by the organisation, with council sources claiming the stance suggests a hardening of attitudes.
The same parade last year bypassed the Gallowgate and Barras market area due in part to Celtic playing a home fixture at Celtic Park.
A council report states: "Police Scotland outlined their observations on the proposed procession and indicated their objection to the procession taking place as submitted. Police Scotland requested a rerouting of the parade via Moir Street rather than Bain Street, as submitted.
"Their concerns were that should this parade take place, there would be a high risk of public disorder and a high risk of disruption to the life of the community.
"This was on the basis that the parade would pass a number of licensed premises in Gallowgate frequented by patrons with republican sympathies and, further, that the parade would pass through the Barras market at a busy time of day causing disruption to traders, shoppers and traffic passing through the area."
In September organisers of a Loyalist parade who wanted to march through a section of Glasgow's east end "to put a burning stick into the nest" were ordered by the council to re-route their event and change the date.
The Regimental Blues, a group formed just this year, said it wanted to march through the Gallowgate as the area had become a "no-go area" for Loyalists.
In August 2009 a small parade by the Royal Black Chapter sparked a riot on the Gallowgate on its way to Bridgeton as supporters and bandsmen clashed with Republican protesters.
Talks with the council, Police Scotland and the Apprentice Boys have broken down in the past week.
A council spokesman said: "This particular parade has traditionally followed the route that Police Scotland has requested. Moir Street was the route used in 2010 and 2011. It was the route applied for in 2012 and would, in all probability, have been followed had Celtic not been playing at Celtic Park.
"There is no tradition or previous experience of the submitted route being used by the organisation."
No-one was available for comment from the Apprentice Boys Scottish Amalgamated Committee.
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