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(Scroll down for editorial saying BBC should have extensively covered the parade)

The long planned parade in Belfast - to celebrate 100 years since the creation of Northern Ireland - took over three hours to pass any given point and attracted over 100,000 spectators. The application to the Parades Commission stated that 131 bands and 25,000 participants were also due to take part in the parade itself.

The parade passed off without incident and was hailed a a major success by organisers, the Orange Order.

(Scroll down for Ben Lowry on how NI was denied a centenary)

However the DUP and TUV claimed the BBC coverage in no way reflected the importance of the event - claiming that a segment on its teatime television bulletin on Saturday compared very unfavourably to GB News - or even RTE - coverage of the same event.

DUP MLA Deborah Erskine has written to the BBC NI Controller asking what further plans it has to cover the event.

“The PSNI estimate 125,000 people participated in the centennial parade yet there appeared to be little coverage from our national broadcaster for those who were unable to make it to the parade due to age or ill-health,” she said. “Indeed, “GB News seemed to be the only broadcaster offering live coverage from the event despite their entire presence in Northern Ireland amounting to just one person.”

She claimed RTE gave as much, if not more, coverage.

“I can’t think of another parade in Belfast where 125,000 people were on the streets celebrating.” She hopes the BBC secured much more footage to provide a fuller report in due course, she added.

TUV East Antrim spokesperson Norman Boyd said the coverage was “woefully inadequate”.

“It is nothing short of shameful that an event which attracted over 100,000 people received such scant attention from the BBC which laughably claims to be a public service broadcaster,” he said.

“In the days leading up to the parade, the BBC seemed only interested in the alleged problems the parade would cause for people who wanted to visit Belfast for other reasons. A few days before the event for example they ran a story on their website headed ‘Belfast retailers to close early ahead of centennial parade’.

“One will look in vain for any mention of the fact that one couldn’t find a hotel room in Belfast last weekend because they had all been booked up by people coming to see the parade.”

He said the massive display on Saturday “merited nothing more than a couple of minutes on the evening news”.

A woman called Marie told the Nolan Show of her disgust at the BBC and ITV coverage.

“People in homes across the country who maybe very much remember when Northern Ireland came into being, [were] waiting by their TVs and they got a few seconds,” she said. “That was it... it was an absolute disgrace. I just can’t believe that it didn’t warrant more than that.”

Like many others, she said, she is elderly and lives far from Belfast, and so she was depending on TV coverage to see the parade, she added.

The BBC responded: “We had a detailed report about the Orange Order’s centennial parade on BBC Newsline’s teatime bulletin on 28 May. This was complemented by related coverage on the BBC News NI website and on BBC Radio Ulster.”

ITV said it broadcast a clip of the event lasting just over two minutes.

• Editorial: BBC Northern Ireland should have extensively covered the centenary parade

• Ben Lowry: Today’s parade is a reminder that NI was denied a 100th birthday

• Northern Ireland centenary parade attracted 100,000 spectators, say police

• WATCH long 10 minute clip of start of the parade

• WATCH as Union Flag-clad songstress belts out ‘Sweet Caroline’ to the crowds

• WATCH IN HIGH QUALITY Rev Gibson savages Protocol saying ‘unless it is not sorted then there will be no next 100 years for NI’

• WATCH 500 police officers on duty at vast Orange march

• WATCH Here they come... WATCH as head of parade hits City Hall

• WATCH ‘Go on Jeffrey!’ Ripple of applause as DUP leader passes east Belfast