A WEST Belfast parish priest has complained to the Parades Commission after a bandsman hurled abuse and "profanities" at an elderly parishioner during an Easter Sunday commemoration. 

St John's Parish Priest, Fr Martin Magill, said the incident occurred when a parishioner, a women in her 70s, approached parade organisers to request that bands did not play while passing the church, where 12 o'clock mass was beginning.

In a statement released on Twitter, Fr Magill said: "On Easter Sunday this year, as 12 noon Mass was beginning in St John’s Church on the Falls Road, a notified band parade was passing the church. Aware Mass was just beginning, an elderly parishioner approached a man in a white shirt whom she understood to be one of the organisers of the parade with a polite request for the bands not to play until they passed the church. To his credit, the man in question began to approach members of the band with the request and some of them stopped playing.

"One bandsman did not and instead verbally abused the parishioner, a woman in her late 70s. She was particularly distressed by his frequent use of the name of Jesus amongst the profanities he used to her.

"Owing to the lack of respect shown by this bandsman I have emailed the Parades Commission to make them aware of this incident."

According to the Parades Commission website, an Irish Republican Socialist Party parade was scheduled for the route in question at the time of the incident.

The Andersonstown News has contacted the Parades Commission and is awaiting a response.