High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! From 6 July to 11 July 1997 there were mass protests, fierce riots and gun battles in Irish nationalist districts of Northern Ireland. Irish nationalists and republicans, in some cases supported by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), attacked the police (Royal Ulster Constabulary - RUC) and British Army. The protests and violence were a reaction to the Drumcree parading dispute. It was sparked by the decision of Mo Mowlam, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, to allow the Orange Order to march through the nationalist district of Portadown, County Armagh. Nationalists were outraged at the decision and by the RUC`s aggressive removal of nationalist protesters who had been blocking the march.