Violence fears as Bloody Sunday memorial march in Glasgow to be met with loyalist protest

Members of the National Defence League are calling on "all loyalists" to demonstrate at the event, sharing posters of "No IRA on our streets" on social media.

Fears of violence have again surfaced in the city following heightened tensions at the end of the last marching season.

Around 200 members of Republican group West of Scotland Band Alliance are expected to parade through the city centre on Saturday morning.

The group, which describes itself as "politically independent", is taking to the streets to "highlight what happened on Bloody Sunday in Derry and continue to call for the prosecution of those responsible".

Bloody Sunday, or the Bogside Massacre, saw 14 unarmed civilians killed by British soldiers during a protest march on January 30, 1972.

Posters shared online by the National Defence League

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The group will meet at Shamrock Street in Cowcaddens at around 11am before following the proposed route: Scott St, West Graham St, Cambridge St, Renfrew St, Renfield St, Jamaica St, Clyde St, Stockwell St, Trongate, Gallowgate, Sydney St.

A group of loyalist protesters are expected to meet the march in the city centre.

A Facebook event, set up by the National Defence League, says it is "calling on all loyalists to be at Cambridge Street" for their demonstration.

Posters of "No IRA on our streets" have been shared, similar to those which were posted ahead of riot-like scenes in Govan last August.

Tensions bowled over that night when loyalist groups protested an 'Irish Unity' march by the James Connelly Republican Flute Band through the area.

A significant deployment of riot police were on the streets that night in what became the start of a challenging period of marches in the city.

Commenting on the latest event, a spokeswoman for anti-racism group Call It Out claimed that violence from counter-protests is "likely".

Violent scenes erupted in Govan in August

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They told the Morning Star: “The targeting by far-right/orange groups of marches organised by sections of the Irish community is an increasing and worrying development.

“Counter-protests are perfectly legal and acceptable but we know from the experience of last year that they are likely to use violence against the police in their attempt to intimidate our community.

“We hope that the authorities will ensure lawful marches are allowed to proceed peacefully and that the media will not repeat their practice of blaming the intended victims alongside the perpetrators.”

Police Scotland's chief superintendent Mark Hargreaves also told the paper: “Our priority is to ensure the safety of all people involved in any event and of the wider community.”

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It comes less than a week after a senior police chief with almost three decades of experience policing in Northern Ireland warned of "challenges" surrounding increasing number of parades in the city.

It was revealed at a Scottish Police Authority board meeting that the number of marches in Scotland rose by almost 20% last year from around 1500 to 1800.

Deputy Chief Constable Will Kerr said: "There has been a very significant increase in parades.

"The parading season in 2019 ended with some significant tension - some of those events were very resource-intensive for us.

"One or two of the parades in particular in September in Glasgow took over 500 officers to police individual events."

He added that his intuition - based on the "surprising" fact that Glasgow hosts more parades over the season than Belfast - tells him "it will be a challenging year."