Joe;
I was interested that a visitor to Ireland found these marches "scary" - that's certainly how they have always struck me, and I grew up with them.
I can't recall anybody suggesting banning them altogether, but regulating them in order to curtail their threatening nature and preventing them from taking place anywhere near Nationalist areas just seems simple common sense to me - but that would rather go against their purpose, I suppose.
Regarding the latter, apparently the main trouble in the Nationalist areas has occured when, following a march that has been re-directed, the marchers make a point of returning through the forbidden areas en-masse, thus inciting the violence.
I notice that the Police Service of Northern Ireland have been informed that, on top of having around a dozen of their officers hurt in the recent rioting in Belfast, they now have to find the funding themselves for policing them, adding a further burden to their already seriously overstretched budget - but that's the price that has to be paid for keeping these quaint old traditions alive!
Jim Carroll