Unfortunately the Irish Times has lost a packet of money and now charges a fee to access just about any interesting news on its website, but here's what I got from the (southern) Irish national radio station's website.

(Nearly) everybody is trying so hard to make the peace process work that lots of "petty" violence including crude but potentially lethal pipe-bomb attacks on civilian targets is left unreported, so that when things get photogenic enough to be worth showing on CNN this can create a biased perception of what things are really like. And BTW, I don't pretend to know myself what things are really like, I just notice how the news is manipulated and try to read between the lines.

July 12, 2002 (23:00) There has been trouble in a flashpoint area of North Belfast this evening as a controversial Orange Order parade passed through the Nationalist Ardoyne area. Bottles, stones and bricks were thrown at the marchers. However, the trouble was reportedly brought to an end after intervention by Nationalist political figures.

A major security operation is in place in North Belfast for the parade through the Ardoyne area. Earlier, a number of missiles were found during a search of shop roofs in the Ardoyne.

Reinforced steel, iron cut into two-foot lengths and a number of star shaped spiked metal objects - together with bricks and bottles - were recovered. The parade passed near the flash-point Nationalist district in North Belfast without incident earlier today.

In West Belfast, police came under attack as they attempted to keep Nationalist protestors from attacking an Orange Order parade on the Springfield Road. The police had ordered plastic baton rounds to keep the crowds back when they were attacked.

In Ballymena, a crowd of around 60 nationalists attacked police with petrol bombs and stones following a parade there. A hoax bomb alert caused some disruption at Dundrum in County Down.

Tension increased in Belfast last night, after the Police Service's Assistant Chief Constable, Alan McQuillan, claimed that Republicans were planning a violent protest against the parade in Ardoyne. He said large quantities of petrol bombs and acid bombs were being manufactured. Mr McQuillan went on to make the specific allegation that a Republican paramilitary organisation was organising and directing this planned attack.

The Sinn Féin Assembly member, Gerry Kelly, said there was no basis for Alan McQuillan's claim. As the parade passed near Ardoyne this morning, hundreds of Nationalists staged a peaceful protest.

It is just eight days since Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern were in Hillsborough where they met, among others, Martin McGuinness and Gerry Adams and appealed for leadership. If, this evening, there is serious violence in the Sinn Féin stronghold of North Belfast, David Trimble will certainly repeat his misgivings about the Republican movement's commitment to the peace process.