Cars attacked in City Hall protest

Crowds gathered outside as the council met to further discuss the row that was sparked when Sinn Féin's Niall Ó Donnghaile refused to present a Duke of Edinburgh award to an Army cadet.

But, with an amended motion to accept his apology passed by the majority, cars were attacked as councillors left the building.

Those protesting hurled abuse at politicians and police struggled to hold them back.

Belfast City Council's 19 unionist representatives all voted against accepting Mr Ó Donnghaile's apology, but the motion was carried by the Alliance Party, Sinn Féin and the SDLP.

"What the Lord Mayor did was wrong and deeply offensive, but he did apologise last week - an apology that was accepted by the young Army cadet's family," Alliance councillor Maire Hendron, who proposed the amended motion, said.

"This episode shows the need for us to move forward and agree to a shared future.

"However, it also shows that we need to deal with the legacy of the past and until we do so we will not be able to move forward."

There’s no doubt that some people were genuinely offended by how the mayor and, indeed, how Sinn Féin handled the matter and the awards - but there are others who have just used the issue to stir up tensions unnecessarily.

Jim McVeigh, Sinn Féin

The leader of the Sinn Féin group on Belfast City Council, Jim McVeigh, told UTV it was time to "put the issue to bed" and get back to discussing the real issues.

He added that he thought some unionist members of the council were concerned by the atmosphere among the protestors who turned up outside Thursday night's meeting.

"The mood of some of the people in the crowd, the attitudes, some of the things that were shouted - they were a throwback to the bad old days," he said.

"And I think they (some unionists) were disturbed by what they had created."

The DUP's Christopher Stalford said that the Lord Mayor's apology was a "half-baked politician's apology" and that unionist councillors needed a promise such an incident wouldn't happen again.

"Our First Citizen let our city down," he told UTV.

"And he had an opportunity this evening to say that such an embarrassment won't happen again and the Alliance Party, the SDLP and Sinn Féin combined to give him a way out."

As tensions continue to run high over the subject, some councillors say it is time to move on - while others insist the Lord Mayor's reputation has been irrevocably damaged.