ORANGE Order marchers were met with angry protests yesterday as they took to the streets of Aberdeen for the first time in 14 years.
Shouts of ''scum'' and ''bigots'' followed more than 200 members of the order as they marched on a two-mile journey through the city centre.
The American flag was carried at the front of the procession as a tribute to those who lost their lives in New York.
Chanting protesters walked with the procession and one man appeared to attempt to assault a marcher before he was quickly restrained by police.
However despite the continuing controversy surrounding the parade, the Orangemen insisted they were already making plans for a much bigger march in the city.
Almost 50 Grampian Police officers were brought in to oversee the march after a number of participants travelled from outwith the city for the event. It was given the go-ahead earlier in the week after a decision by the city council to ban the procession was overturned at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
Aberdeen City Council, which has banned all similar parades for the past 14 years, was told by the court that it had been wrong to veto an application from Bon Accord Lodge 701.
Yesterday's march began in Rubislaw Terrace, travelling via Alford Place, along Holburn Street, and Great Southern Road. Police stopped protesters from following the march at the end of Riverside Drive amid fears of trouble.
Threatened trouble was averted about a mile into the march after police took steps to contain more than 40 Aberdeen football ''casuals'' inside a city pub as marchers walked past. Some marchers shouted obscenities at protesters and at motorists who sounded their horns in protest as the march reached the city's busy Holburn Street.
Claiming that the protests were made by ''a few foul-mouthed thugs'', James MacLean, the county grand master of the east of Scotland area of the Loyal Orange Order, insisted it was their right to march.
He said: ''We are pleased that today went very well. We will be back and in larger numbers. We have shown we will not be deterred in any way.''
Grampian Police said they were satisfied with how the event had concluded.
Inspector Duncan Gall said two arrests had been made, adding: ''It was successful. Our aim was to maintain law and order and that was achieved.''
The Orange Order had appealed to the courts after the council's licensing committee agreed by just one vote to ban the march.
In 1987 trouble flared at a parade and five people were later arrested for breach of the peace offences.
Fears of public disorder were then given as the reason for refusing all subsequent marches.
The Orange Order appealed against the council's decision and Sheriff Anella Cowan said councillors had failed to give proper reasons for their decision and overturned the ban.
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