By Democrat reporter

An Orange Walk has been banned from passing a Catholic Church where a priest was spat on due to safety fears in the past has led to a significant protest and police presence.

Glasgow City Council has been met with fierce criticism after allowing the loyalist group, the Bridgegton Apprentice Boys of Derry, to march past a Catholic church this morning, where its parish priest was spat on and subjected to sectarian abuse in 2018.

Angry protestors gathered outside St Alphonsus in the Calton area this morning, many with signs which read “No anti-Catholic marches past Catholic Churches”, prompting the loyalist march to be rerouted around London Road and Bain Street amid safety fears.

“It certainly can’t have been by looking at the arrest figures for these events. Nor, can it have been by looking at the historical divisions caused by them either.

“The council are driving Glasgow into the ground. You just have to look at the dirty streets in the city-centre, and this is another stink they have created by allowing this march to pass churches in the Calton again.

“Glasgow gets this reputation for bigotry but it isn’t fair. People come from all across Scotland to attend these marches so the council are letting people down by hosting them.”

Canon Tom, left, who was appointed parish priest of Holy Cross in the Dunbartonshire village of Croy in September after 25 years serving in the Calton area, has tried hard not to be defined by the incident in 2018.

A number of applications for marches in the area were denied by the council afterwards but one was granted in May, 2019, and following further disorder Police Scotland advised processions should be banned from passing St Mary’s and St Alphonsus.

However, Glasgow City Council decided to allow the procession to go ahead despite objections from the Parish Council for both churches.

“We will however be issuing an update on conclusion of the event.”