RUC and British Army patrols were attacked hundreds of times by rioters throwing stones and petrol bombs, and by IRA members with automatic rifles and grenades.

Local magistrate William Hancock wrote in 1835: "For some time past the peaceable inhabitants of the parish of Drumcree have been insulted and outraged by large bodies of Orangemen parading the highways, playing party tunes, firing shots, and using the most opprobrious epithets they could invent... a body of Orangemen marched through the town and proceeded to Drumcree church, passing by the Catholic chapel though it was a considerable distance out of their way.

Orangemen and their supporters clashed with the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) until the residents were persuaded to clear the road and the march went ahead.

[21] On 18 June 1997, Alistair Graham warned after the killing of two RUC officers in nearby Lurgan that the IRA was seeking to raise tensions before the march so that a compromise would be impossible.

[3] According to a document leaked from the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland in 2021, on 9 June the RUC requested heavy equipment to government agencies in order to remove roadblocks and barricades set up by potential rioters.

[23] As residents were unable to reach the Catholic church, the local priests held an open-air mass in front of a line of soldiers and armoured personnel carriers.

[29] Nearby, an IRA unit prevented a British Army riot squad from entering the Markets area after firing 20 machine gun rounds at them.

Late that evening in the Oldpark area, an RUC Land Rover became stuck in a barricade made of iron pilings and its crew had to flee when it was attacked with petrol bombs.

[8] The Continuity IRA (CIRA) claimed responsibility for a gun attack on RUC officers in the Oldpark Road-Cliftonville area, which according to the statement left one constable wounded.

[34] The CIRA claimed responsibility for a gun and grenade attack on New Barnsley RUC station, and shots fired on the Stewartstown Road, Andersonstwown.

[3] Cars were hijacked and burnt and one was set ablaze after being driven through the gates of a bank, while petrol bombs were thrown at the Protestant Apprentice Boys fraternity headquarters by the rioters.

[39] A 16-year-old boy suffered "a fractured skull, a broken jaw, and shattered facial bones amongst other injuries" after allegedly being beaten by RUC officers.

[31] Shortly after midnight, a 25-year-old woman suffered a fractured bone after being shot in the leg by a live round fired from New Barnsley RUC base.

[43] One source reported that warning shots had been fired, while another said the teenager was wounded when an IRA unit launched a gun and grenade attack on a military base near the interface.

[29] Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) gunmen also opened fire on British soldiers[4] in West Belfast,[31] where rioters blocked Whiterock Road with a digger.

[33] In the Dunmurry area of Belfast, Brian Morton,[9] a militant of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) was killed when the pipe bomb he was handling exploded prematurely.

[28] A shopping centre in downtown Newry was looted by what republican sources called "a gang responsible for a long series of anti-social activities and intimidation".

[31] The house of a former Protestant councillor who incidentally had died in hospital from an unrelated illness barely minutes before was the target of a petrol bomb attack in Derry.

That day, residents announced that they would block the Orange Order's 12 July parades in Armagh, Newry, Bellaghy, Lower Ormeau Road (Belfast), Derry and Strabane.

[29] According to independent sources, IRA members fired at British soldiers and RUC officers who were trying to remove barricades in North Belfast in the early hours of Tuesday, forcing them to retreat.

The picket lasted an hour and was concluded after Sinn Féin councillor Noel Sheridan addressed the crowd, urging them to attend further protests during the week.

[26] A landmine was planted by the IRA near Dungannon, and a suspected bomb was found in the city's center,[4] where several vehicles were burnt,[26] while a rifle was recovered at Short Strand in Belfast.

[48] In Lurgan's Kilwilkie estate, RUC and Royal Irish Regiment troops tried to clear residents from their homes after claiming there was a bomb near the railway line.

There was a security alert at Newry RUC station and the Ulster Unionist Party Headquarters received a hoax letter bomb in the post.

[46] The Independent reported that two teenage Protestants at an Eleventh Night bonfire in North Belfast were shot and wounded by republican gunmen who had fired across a peace line.

[3] The last IRA action took place on 12 July, when an improvised mortar round fell 40 yards (37 m) short of the helipd of RUC/British Army base at Newtownhamilton, South Armagh.

[48] Local Sinn Féin councillor Paul Butler and other republican residents claimed to have uncovered a "British Army spy post" in the Summerhill area of Twinbrook, Belfast, allegedly used during the riots to track the neighbours' movements.

[3] In Pomeroy, County Tyrone, nationalist residents blocked Orangemen's return parade with a counter-demonstration,[4] while the marches in Newry[5] and Lower Ormeau were cancelled outright.

According to Anglican minister Bill Hoey, a member of the Order, "this was an extremely bitter pill to swallow, but the powers that be made it clear to us that to have taken any other decision would have meant civil war.

"[60] Author Eric Kaufmann claims that the RUC overstated security threats to trick county lodge officials into taking the decision.