'On the Edge' edited by Neil Jarman (1996)

BALLYSILLAN - LIGONEILL

Ballysillan and Ligoniel are situated on the north-west margins of Belfast, and they were, to some degree, marginal to the main events of last Summer. Nevertheless the experiences of people in these areas, particularly during Drumcree week, has left deep impressions on both communities, if in very different ways. In Ballysillan, the community itself was not threatened to any degree but people were concerned about the position of people in the small and isolated neighbouring Protestant communities in Torrens and Westland. In Ligoniel their geographical marginality led to a unique and worrying experience, for a period in early July they were physically isolated by barricades erected by others, and without means of communication to the outside world.

In spite of the tension and conflict that was experienced last summer there was acknowledgement of the common roots of the two communities.

Ligoniel/Ballysillan is classed as sort of the one area - always was - because a lot of the people who live in Ballysillan actually came from Ligoniel - they came in the 70s. Trouble started in Ligoniel and most of the Protestants moved out and moved down to here but they still have old friends. There is a lot of groups have had good contact across the divide, there is a lot of cross-community work going on (Ballysillan/Ardoyne Community Group).

Nevertheless, at present there is also a certain degree of fear and mistrust. and a recognition of the reality of the interface between the two communities.

Their main building is just a hundred yards across the invisible peace line. The invisible boundary They have a big project up there in Ligoniel and if you go up the road, about two hundred yards there is St Marks. It is sort of the boundary line. St Marks is one of the oldest - 150 years old - Church of Ireland churches, just sits on the peace line and just 100 yards above that is their main Community Centre (Ballysillan/Ardoyne).

According to the submission from Ligoniel the first of the disturbances in North Belfast, at the time of the Tour of the North parade did not really impact on the area.

However among Protestants in Ballysillan there were strong feelings that the declaration by nationalists that the lower Cliftonville Road and Upper Duncairn Gardens area was a ‘nationalist area’ was not a legitimate claim.

What really annoyed us was the fact that they called the lower part of the Cliftonville Road a nationalist area. It’s no nationalist area - how could you turn around a main Protestant church followed by one of the biggest Protestant schools in the Cliftonville Road. You have the Salvation Army Home. On this side you had a coal yard, the old Jaffa School - donated by the first Jewish Lord Mayor of Belfast - most of the houses have been turned into office blocks. There are no nationalists lives on that piece of the Cliftonville Road, from the Antrim Road to Cliftonpark Avenue where the parade was going to come up (Ballysillan resident).

Road Blocks and Arson Attacks

Ballysillan Orangemen were among those who marched on the Tour of the North, and many of them shared the concerns of the wider Orange community. There was not any trouble in the Ballysillan area after the parade, but concerns about the threats to the rights of Protestants to parade were running high. These concerns erupted into activity during Drumcree week. The result was the blockage of a large number of local roads.

The week of the Drumcree crisis, the roads at nights and all started to get blocked. They were blocked at the lights at the Oldpark, they were blocked going over the hill towards Ballysillan, towards the Model. They were blocked at the Model School. They were blocked at Westland - sort of to close main Protestant areas.

It was claimed that the road blocks were not an organised protest but more of a spontaneous response in support of Drumcree. But it was also necessary to exert some control from the wider community to ensure restraint.

In spite of the assertion that the road blocks were peaceful and disciplined it was acknowledged that some cars were burnt during this period. However, how the cars came to end up burning in the middle of the road is another matter.

I think on the Cavehill Road there was one or two burnt, but I think what happened was joy riders from the nationalist side came up and were doing wheelies, almost close to the sort of main barricades, to see how close they could get. One frllow ended up in the middle of the fire, had to leave the car. This is what was happening on the Cavehill Road site - they were actually doing wheelies in stolen cars. This wasn't from the loyalist side. But it just shows you.

There were also a number of arson attacks in the Ballysillan area through the week. These were either played down or they were blamed on nationalists who were trying to increase tensions.

The Girls Model School was burnt. I think there was a few petrol bombs, but a few years ago it was completely gutted. This year the caretaker happened to just come in and see them and was able to get it put out in time. I think there was just a couple of class rooms or something scorched. It was targeted by the nationalist side, just the same as somebody targeted this Catholic school - the Lady of Mercy (Ballysillan resident).

The Lady of Mercy School had been built about thirty years ago when the area was more mixed, but now most of the children come in from outside, from Ligoniel and Ardoyne. As a Catholic school in the midst of Protestant Ballysillan it was something of an easy target.

While there was some considerable damage to property, and the submissions probably understate the amount of such attacks, there was generally a feeling that things could have been a lot worse if it had been for the restraints imposed from within the Protestant community. The need to retain some degree of communal control was a constant factor because throughout the week there was often considerable uncertainty as to the scale and the nature of events elsewhere in Belfast. Rumour and gossip often appear to have driven action and because the Ballysillan community was not under threat itself, they were often called on to assist other areas.

Both Torrens and Westland are small loyalist areas near to Ballysillan. Torrens received considerable publicity early in the week when a number of Catholics moved out of the estate. Because of its proximity to the Ardoyne, events in that area were watched carefully by people in Ballysillan.

We know that xxx brought two hundred people from Ardoyne to help - actually brought two hundred hard-liners from Ardoyne to agitate the trouble. He brought people up to Torrens to try and intimidate the last few Protestants that lives in Torrens up there around the Police Station. And as the proof will show in this, that the people who actually burnt them out - some Catholics were burnt out of that area - they have now or are being charged with the fire and they were all nationalists. No Catholic’s were burnt out (Ballysillan resident).

People in Ardoyne were in their turn aware that Protestants from other areas were Watching events in Torrens.

Events in the Westland estate, on the other hand, received little public attention at the time. However we have already noted that there were road blocks and fires at the junction of Cavehill Road and there appears to have been the potential for an escalation of the trouble here. The intervention of local activists helped to keep things calm and under control.

1 went to the office to see these women, there was three or four women and one of them was very, very hyper - her nerves was completely gone - and she said that a bus load of nationalists had come into Westland the night before with hurly bats and baseball bats and broke a few windows and then got into the van and drove back out again (Unionist politician).

This man offered to talk with both the police and with local people, to try to ensure that the police were aware of the problem, and that the presence of local men on the streets did not provoke any more serious clashes.

The submissions from Ballysillan and from the PUP both emphasise the amount of work that was done behind the scenes to control the violence and to defuse the anger that was felt, and often expressed, in Protestant areas. In some places this was more successful than others but people also pointed out that things could probably have been worse but for this steady round of meetings and discussions.

These rounds of meetings and dialogue were not enough to save some individuals in the area from being targeted. A young woman, who had only recently moved into a new house in the Oldpark area, was one victim of the violence.

I went to visit my mother and I got a phone call about 1130pm to tell me that the Fire Brigade were outside my door. When I eventually got up to the house it had been attacked - two petrol bombs - one had gone through the back window, the second luckily had fallen far off the house. But the house was very badly damaged, downstairs the ground floor was completely gutted and everything in it destroyed, so I lost all of my new stuff.

She was both confused and surprised that she had become a target of violence.

The police advised her that they would probably be unable to find out who carried out the attack, but she wondered how seriously such attacks were pursued especially after one comment from a local policeman.

On the other hand she was pleasantly surprised by the response she got from the Housing Executive when she was having problems trying to get her house boarded up and secured.

Six months later this young woman had still not been able to move back into her home.

For residents of Ligoniel the events of Drumcree week were deeply alarming. Ligoniel is separated from the rest of the city on the south and east by the Protestant residential areas of Ballysillan and Glencairn, and on the north and west by the hills, as a result of this the area is very easy to isolate. On Tuesday 9 July, all roads into Ligoniel were blocked and the area was cut off from the rest of the city. A local resident describes the flow of events.

The police did offer some assistance to remove barriers but it was felt that they should have done more to keep the roads open. They seemed to be trying to ensure that the violence did not escalate rather than clear the roads. This appeared to have been a response to the scale of the disturbances across the city and the resulting shortage of police officers.

As people congregated on the streets local activists tried to maintain some sense of calm and restraint, hoping to stop things getting even worse.

This went on but crowds started to gather; myself and a few others tried not to let crowds down the road - there were kids and people with drink in them - and generally keep people calm. As time wore on the manhole at the bottom of the road was pulled up and they burnt the telephone wires. Burning the telephone wires cut off every telephone in the area, the only telephone was a payphone in the centre, but the centre closes at 11pm so we had no emergency phones (Ligoniel resident).

People in Ardoyne understood that the closing of Ligoniel was in part also a warning to them.

A local nationalist politician described how difficult it was for him to gain access to Ligoniel at this time.

I had to drive right round the airport, coming in by Crumlin Road to turn into Ligoniel. I was followed in - when you came along the Crumlin Road from the airport, if you turn right into the Ligoniel Road you are only going one place, which is down in the Ligoniel area. There were two cars sitting there, quite literally - I don’t exaggerate it - I did 80 or 90mph driving to Ligoniel. But I had to go right round because there were loyalist road blocks still about and regardless of who you are, I didn't fancy being stopped by loyalists, by UVF road blocks in the middle of the country at 10.30 at night.

His experiences confirmed that Ligoniel was almost completely cut off during this period. He also felt that the main aim of the police at this time was to prevent direct confrontations between members of the two communities rather than keep roads open.

Ligoniel was completely cut off. The police offered no assistance whatsoever, according to eye witnesses the bus was hijacked and burnt at the bottom of the Ligoniel Road, and there were two police Land Rovers sitting there when it was done. They lifted a manhole and poured petrol down it - the British Telecom manhole - which knocked the telephone out. Certain telephone lines were reconnected but I think for two, nearly three days the Ligoniel estate had no telephones.

I wasn’t there for all of it, but loyalists came across the fields from Glencairn direction - I think the police actually did stop them there - but they stopped them because local people were literally going to arm themselves and go into the fields to protect the Ligoniel area.

On reflection, people in Ligoniel feel that the police should have intervened at an early stage to stop the protests beginning. They were also concerned and angry that the physical barricades were allowed to remain in place for a number of days.

The apparent reluctance of the police to act against the loyalist crowd contrasted with the way they responded to the later confrontations with the nationalist community. As stories of assaults on Catholics in other areas spread and after the ending of the stand-off at Drumcree, a full-scale riot broke out in Ligoniel.

In spite of these events, and widely held perceptions that the police acted differently and unequally in their response to disturbances in the Ballysillan and Ligoniel, at least one community activist in the Catholic area felt that relations with the police had begun to improve again.

But he also felt that the police would still have to confront the very real concerns that remained within the community over the way they responded to the events last summer.

Where Now?

The first quotation that we used in this section described a sense of the common bonds between the communities of Ballysillan and Ligoniel. While these were obviously not broad enough or strong enough to prevent violence from breaking out it has been suggested that they did perhaps provide some degree of restraint. It was not clear however whether these links were now severed or just severely strained. The Ballysillan submission expressed diverging views on this.

This tension, mistrust and sense of divisions was confirmed by the submission from Ligoniel.

The submissions from Ballysillan and Ligoniel show how two neighbouring residential areas can have contrasting concerns about security and justice. The issue of territory was central to both groups, both have a sense of the constant presence of the other’ community. Areas must be owned by one side or another, and the boundaries must be known and recognised. The notion of a common civic space is almost absent. Every march, whether successful or blocked, is seen to mark the boundary of ‘our country’. The result is that marches turn into declarations of claims to political control of territory.

In Ballysillan, the concern about marching rights has become a concern that Protestants are being excluded from parts of the city, even on peaceful business. In Ligoniel, the experience of Drumcree week was that any challenge to the Protestant insistence on marching could lead to extreme personal and communal vulnerability. It had also illustrated the limited ability of the system of law and order to offer protection.

Complaints were made, in both Ballysillan and Ligoniel, that the police were too tolerant towards the 'other’ and too tough on the local young people. Among Catholics in Ligoniel, there is a strong sense that threatening Protestant demonstrations were treated lightly and the much less threatening riots in Catholic areas were responded to with greater severity. During the Summer of 1996 people in both areas felt themselves vulnerable to whirlwind changes outside of their control. The legacy of fear has solidified communal boundaries, but the optimism that was expressed that old links can be revived, offers some hope.

SKEGONEILL/GLANDORE

Skegoneill Avenue is a residential street linking the Shore Road to the Antrim Road. There is a small interface area around the junction with Glandore Avenue which includes the small Ashfield area. The local divisions were bluntly described by a resident.

But local Protestants did not feel there was a history of tension in the area.

It was regarded as a mixed area, but this was felt to have worked well rather than cause problems.

We have band competitions, York Street, York Road and North Queen Street, there ‘s bands on every corner And they came up Skegoneill and they go along Jellicoe. Now those boys are out to play well, to look well, to win some competition - and half of Glandore came down to see them, Catholics come down to see them (Protestant residents).

On the evening of 10 July 1996 a serious incident took place in the mid-Skegoneill area around the junction with Glandore Avenue which resulted in a number of people leaving their homes. The Drumcree stand-off was into its fourth night and young Protestants had gathered at the Skegoneill/Glandore junction. According to local Protestants, this demonstration was peaceful and a number of older people were present to ensure that things remained calm.

Local Catholics however did not perceive this demonstration in the same light, they saw it as threatening.

According to these residents, the events that unfolded on the Wednesday evening were the culmination of tension that had built up over the previous days.

There did not appear to be any one specific incident which tipped the balance, but the increasing tension appears to have made some Catholics living near the interface feel that they were no longer safe.

Local Protestants were surprised and shocked when a number of vans appeared in Skegoneill Avenue to begin to move people out. They claim that charges of intimidation were spurious and were used to exploit the wider situation.

And she had wanted to leave for a long time. Yes, that one lady - because the pa lice had said about it and we said no she wasn't intimidated and then people said she wanted to move. I mean the woman wanted out and they said that if she moved and claimed intimidation she could get money (Protestant residents).

Local Catholics were also surprised at the appearance of the removal vehicles in the area.

We were standing at the Northern Bank, on the Antrim Road there, when all these minibuses were flying up the road, so we went up - you know people says they’re getting burnt out - so we went up.

The RUC were already on the scene and there seems to have been some discussion about whether the vans would be allowed into the area. Eventually the vans were allowed in but under police control.

The police wouldn’t let the vans go through and we were all standing there amid people - it was like a human kind of trail bringing peoples luggage, like they were bringing out their worldly belongings while these people stood and watched them (Catholic resident).

One of the concerns for the police seems to have been that the tension might escalate into physical violence given the number of people who were on the street. In fact the rising tension seems to have persuaded other Catholic residents that now was also the time for them to move.

Then, next thing these people in another house right at the corner - it was right beside the protest, right beside where they were lighting afire, walked out the back door and says Come on’. So everybody just formed a line and they were just passing everything out. He was just so frightened, he wasn't one of the ones getting forced out at the time but then it was only a matter of time probably before they found out (Catholic resident).

On the Protestant side, residents were alarmed at the large numbers of people who had come into the street and the possible threats that this could cause to them.

They also claim that a number of the local Catholic residents were similarly concerned about the developments and did not have any intention of moving.

All hell broke loose. Sinn Féin came down. That was the start of it. My husband said ‘What’s happening? There are crowds of people going past the window’. It transpired that Sinn Féin were down and one lady said she was being intimidated and I can guarantee you she wasn't because she had her stuff in boxes. She had been packed, and a Catholic neighbour said she had been packing through the night on the day before. Catholic neighbours came out and said to Sinn Féin 'What are you doing here?’ They actually asked Catholic neighbours did they want to move out. They said No’, and they came out and said ‘We don’t want you here, we don’t need you here’. So it ended up we said if that lady wants to move, let her move. But it put an awful lot of fear - I even said to a couple of Catholics - there was one particular girl, single mother, one wee boy and I said if you are so afraid you come and sleep in my house tonight. We were quite willing to open our houses (Protestant resident).

The appearance of a well-known republican figure on Skegoneill Avenue added to the concern of Protestants.

For Catholics who had come onto the streets, the focus of their concern was on the families being moved out. This provoked a sympathetic and positive response from within the community who wanted to provide whatever assistance they could.

It was so degrading like - there was these people with young families and what was their worldly possessions, getting passed along on this trail to be put on minibuses to go and what, sleep in a community centre.

It appears that although the police did not take any action to try to move the Protestant demonstrators away or to clear the road, word reached other loyalist communities in lower North Belfast that Sinn Féin were in the area, and there was a rumour that Protestants in mid-Skegoneill were under threat. This led to a large crowd of local men walking up the road to confront this perceived threat.

The police blocked the road and stopped Orangemen and other local people from confronting both the vans, and the nationalist crowds. This caused some anger among the Protestant crowd who said that they felt intimidated by the large numbers of nationalists and who were already angry with the police for allowing Sinn Féin into the area.

These exchanges between the police and Protestant residents and the failure of the RUC to remove either the original protests or the street-fires were interpreted as a form of collusion and this in turn caused anger and suspicion among Catholic observers.

They didn't move the barricades away, and they burnt it because then the buses couldn't get round to lift the big pieces of furniture. The police were actually down chatting to the Protestants. I don't mean like talking to them as in 'you have to move' - just chatting to them (Catholic resident).

Feelings on the Protestant side grew stronger and after the departure of the removal vans, a Divisional Mobile Support Unit (DMSU) arrived to clear the crowd off the road. They were accused of using rough tactics, however no official complaint was made about their behaviour and overall it was felt that the police handled the situation reasonably enough.

The riot squad then caused a bit of a problem. That’s the DMSU, the mobile unit, they walk up to you and you know you just see the visor in front of you, you know right up. Maybe because I am older, men don't do that to women - not in my time -a man just does not intimidate. We were not doing anything bar standing. One woman actually came our fairly drunk and I managed to get her out to the side. I’m not saying we need medals or anything pinned on us, I’m just saying that through dignity we kept it from getting out of hand.

The numbers of people on the street seems to have dropped once the removal vans had left the area. A security presence was maintained through the night however.

But in spite of this presence there was still a tense night ahead for Catholics who were living in the area.

Local Protestant community workers also maintained a visible presence throughout the night to try to ensure that there was no trouble from their own side.

They also tried to ensure that the empty house would not be vandalised.

The events on Skegoneill Avenue raise many questions. First of all, there is no commonly agreed definition of intimidation. To Protestants, demonstrations in support of Drumcree were not intimidating. To some Catholics, indeed to all who testified to this Inquiry, they clearly were. As a result, there is no agreement that fear was justified. Furthermore, the rescue of Catholic families by removers from Ardoyne was regarded as an invasion by Sinn Féiners and intimidating on the Protestant side.

Second, police decisions in these contexts are open to widely differing interpretations. Whether this can be avoided is doubtful. Nevertheless, the result is that the police appear to be just another party in the context of rioting and street disorder and never the transcendent force of law and order.

Thirdly, the motives of intimidation as grounds for people moving are taken at face value by those who share the fear of intimidation and discounted by those who do not accept that intimidation took place. As a result, people’s fears are constantly being written off by others who do not and cannot share them.

The result was the removal of several Catholic families from mid-Skegoneill by non-statutory groups during the Drumcree stand-off. This has consolidated a view among nationalists that the statutory bodies stand by while Catholics are intimidated. Among Protestants, it has increased the sense that they are vulnerable to ‘invasion’. Neither side expressed any real understanding of the other’s experiences or fears, nor of any lessons which might be drawn for future reference.

DUNCAIRN/LIMESTONE AREA

The area of Lower North Belfast, from the New Lodge through to Alexandra Park, suffered some degree of violence during the period of the Drumcree stand-off.

However most submissions from within the Protestant community tended to play down the disturbances at this time, and suggested that they were no more than might have been expected given the extensive divisions within the area.

While there was some acknowledgement that some disruption in 1996 was a direct result of the protests in support of the Orangemen at Drumcree, this was not seen as particularly serious:

In contrast, the submissions made to us from the nationalist community suggested that there actually was some serious, and sustained, inter-communal violence during Drumcree week.

They were attacking the houses round Park End, like every night of the week there was people with their windows being smashed. In the end the police decided to put a jeep -permanently - beside the Glen to watch out for trouble (Newington resident).

The persistent violence and the fear of further attacks brought people out on to the streets, and this then created, or had the potential for further problems.

Besides the persistent low-level violent attacks, some of the trouble was clearly on a much larger scale. There were, for instance, some statements recording more substantial attacks on property and street clashes between rival groups.

One time - it was so well planned - they attacked the Limestone Road and when the police arrived a crowd then attacked Dun cairn Gardens, they broke so many windows and houses and they attacked cars and there were loads of cars and houses damaged but they knew the police were on the Limestone. So they got away with it no problem (Newington resident).

This was not an isolated event according to the submission.

The police response to this violence was often seen as inadequate by nationalists. The RUC were criticised for retaining an inadequate presence at potential flashpoints and for being slow to respond when violence broke out. Included within many submissions was a claim that the RUC were often inconsistent in their responses to the violence, that they responded more severely to nationalists when they took to the streets after the Drumcree parade had been allowed along the Garvaghy Road than when loyalists protested earlier in the week.

Continuing the previous statement, the individual claims that when the police did arrive, they drew their plastic bullets guns and aimed as if to fire at the loyalists, but they then held back.

This may well have been good practice, using the threat of a baton round rather than the actual round itself to deter violence, but it was felt that this practice was more readily adopted when the RUC were confronted with Protestant rioters.

Although there were no references to inter-communal violence from the submissions made from the Protestant community, loyalists were often critical of police action taken against them. In particular an incident in Glasgow Street was referred to by various people. In this case the anger persisted because complaints that were made to the police, at the time and after, were not felt to have been adequately dealt with.

On 10 July five police Land Rovers drove up, they all jumped out, they assaulted the band members, they walked into the public house and started assaulting the patrons. It started the ball rolling, a couple of hundred people started arriving. You understand what the police look like when they are going into what they call a riot situation, they're dressed up and everything, these police just run amok, straight down Glasgow’ Street, women, children, the lot - fired plastic bullets through peoples' windows (Duncairn area).

After the Drumcree church parade was allowed to pass along the Garvaghy Road, the Protestant areas quietened down. But now nationalists became angry in their turn and took to the streets.

There was a lot of trouble, the eleventh, the Twelfth and the thirteenth - that was the Catholics - it was just built up over the week (Newington resident).

Some of the hostility was turned towards the neighbouring Protestant areas, although people were restrained from making direct sectarian attacks

Most of this anger was directed at the police. There was resentment at the way the RUC had reversed their original decision over the Drumcree parade, and this had confirmed suspicions which had been briefly challenged over preceding days by the decision to stop the parade.

See the whole week that there was a stand-off in Drumcree - you weren't proud but you were like 'I can't believe the RUC are doing it, they're not going to let them march' and you felt, not good, but you felt like there is something good about that, and then they let them walk through and everyone was so disappointed, and so let down and you were so annoyed about it. It was awful (Newington resident).

With hindsight, there was also a criticism of the way that the police had reacted to nationalists coming out onto the streets to protest.

When there was trouble before the eleventh, when the loyalists were at their worst, nationalist areas were very quiet and it was kept that way until Drumcree fell through. Any time there was trouble maybe one or two jeeps would turn up and the trouble went on even though the police were there. But when the trouble happened after the eleventh if there was any sign of trouble there was maybe thirteen or fourteen jeeps, and there was police everywhere (Newington resident).

And as indicated earlier there was also criticism of the apparently greater readiness of the police to use plastic bullets against nationalists (although loyalists were equally critical of the use of plastic bullets against them). Particular mention was made of the firing of baton rounds in the New Lodge and Antrim Road area on the Twelfth night. There were;

Although these people were critical of the way in which the police handled the protests from within the nationalist community, it was also felt that it was conforming to previous patterns of behaviour:

Many of the responses to the violence of Drumcree week in Lower North Belfast focused on the police reaction to the events. Both communities were critical of the police actions but where loyalists tended to criticise the way the police had reacted to them, nationalists were critical of what they saw as the differential attitudes: this contrasting behaviour was felt to be unexceptional since it was acknowledged that the police drew its membership overwhelmingly from the Protestant community. The events of the whole week served to harden convictions among nationalists and increase suspicion among loyalists.

LIMESTONE ROAD - MOUNTCOLLYER AREA

THE MONSTER TRUCKS RIOTS,
SEPTEMBER 1996

The area of Lower North Belfast centred around the Tiger’s Bay - Limestone Road - Mountcollyer interfaces were the scene of further street fighting in early September. Trouble began as crowds were leaving a ‘Monster Trucks’ rally in Dunmore Stadium on Sunday 1 September and rapidly spread into neighbouring streets and the adjacent Alexandra Park. A local resident describes the events.

As we were leaving we seen a bit of commotion out on the street - we seen bottles smashing, so we went to see what was happening and there was fellows with crowbars and hammers and loads of bottles and they were just throwing them at everybody. They ran into the park after us and we ended up having to fend them off until we got a lot of other ones in, other people from Dunmore seeing what was happening chased them back a bit.

Once again there was criticism of the police, on this occasion they were blamed for not forseeing the potential for trouble:

It is perhaps easy to blame the police for not having enough officers at such an event, especially given the violence in the area over preceding weeks. But on the other hand, at times the RUC come under criticism for maintaining a too prominent position at social events. On this occasion the criticism may be justified for as submissions from within the Protestant community readily acknowledged, the Alexandra Park area had become an increasingly violent interface in recent years.

After the initial clashes on the Sunday afternoon, trouble continued over the next couple of days. The accounts we were given were somewhat hazy on the sequence of events and on the details.

There were houses attacked on the upper Duncairn Gardens and there were houses attacked on Halliday's Road, from both sides of the community. I’m not denying there was a bit of conflict - you know people’s homes were wrecked, their windows and their cars were wrecked (Duncairn area).

The violence and disturbances quietened down almost as rapidly as they had appeared. This seems to have been largely due to hard talking by a few community activists who got people from both communities to address the problem.

Non-political representatives met and said ‘if it starts on our side, we'll tell them to knock it on the head’ and on Tiger’s Bay side the same sort of thing happened. So it became a community thing, representatives from the two communities decided ‘we will control it’ and, within twenty four hours, the serious trouble stopped (Nationalist politician).

Although the violence stopped the area remained tense, people continued to gather on the street, and this made further clashes possible.

A series of meetings over several days involving a wide range of people from both communities were needed before the tension began to decline. The meetings themselves were often tense affairs and the process of dialogue itself was fraught with problems.

Another development that was seen to reduce the trouble was the erection of a fence across the top of Mountcollyer. The plans appear to have been initiated by the police.

The councillors seem to have been reluctant to agree to a position for the barrier, which would define and fix the territorial boundaries, without consulting with their communities, and would not make a final decision at this time. Community activists also seem to have been involved in the plans for the barrier as part of the wider moves to reduce the tension, they responded to demands from within the community.

A barrier was erected at the top of Mountcollyer and, despite concern over the loss of housing, it was felt that it was effectively designed to deal with any further trouble.

A similar strategy, to erect a barrier, but this time a gated barrier, was decided for the junction of Hallidays Road and Duncairn Gardens. In this case the initiative seems to have come largely from within the nationalist community and to have arisen as a result of the persistent attacks on property in Duncairn Gardens over previous weeks. Some people were critical of the decision.

Within the Protestant community there was both a dislike of the barriers as a physical presence and as a constraint. But there was also a feeling that they were erected as a response to demands from within the nationalist community, or simply to appease Catholics.

Nationalists on the other hand welcomed the barriers although they viewed them from a more pragmatic perspective, as a necessary imposition to control violent clashes. However some of the younger people in the nationalist community were sceptical of the value of the barrier and of the reasons being offered for the cessation of the violence.

This argument would suggest that people would continue to clash in spite of the new barriers. They would either confront each other at other existing interfaces or that new sites of conflict would come into existence. This line of reasoning is implicit in many of the statements that refer to the persistent nature of the divisions within North Belfast and the seemingly constant changes to the social make up of many areas. Although the incidents outside the Dunmore Stadium were acknowledged as the flashpoint, the Mountcollyer area had suffered a growing problem of sectarian violence over recent years.

As regards Limestone/Mountcollyer - that’s a nightmare situation that’s been going on for years. There is about twenty houses up there that are sort of isolated and they get forgotten about. The people are determined to stay but they have had it summer after summer after .summer for the past five or six years, back to about ‘91. When they closed off Adam Street and Lepper Street it moved from Duncairn. Where does it move to? Where is the next interface?

This increasing and recurrent violence was seen to be a result of the demographic changes which were perceived by Protestants to be part of a broader challenge to their position in the area. And while the new barriers may have been erected in response to concerns for security within the nationalist community, residents of Tiger’s Bay felt that they were part of a wider and more sinister campaign against the Protestant community.

The new barriers were seen by Protestants as the next step in this wider campaign.

Upper Mountcollyer, Parkend Street and all around there, that was a Protestant community. Now the Protestants let the Catholics move in there because there is a Chapel just across the road - its an overspil lfrom the Lodge. They‘ve took over the area now, there is only one Protestant family in Parkend Street (Duncairn area).

This sense of being a beleaguered people, ran through most of the submissions from the Protestant community. While the nationalist submissions focused on the immediate problems of the violent clashes, the unwanted parades, and the police responses, Protestant concerns addressed their long term position within North Belfast. They claimed that they were being neglected, their houses were not renovated, that when areas were renewed not enough replacement housing was provided.

Similar claims were put to us from Protestant communities across North Belfast. Their strongly held feelings can be summed up in two final quotations. The first of these addresses their concerns about the attitudes of the state and statutory bodies towards them, the other is addressed to the nationalist community.

There is a perception that somewhere in the higher echelons of power there was a plan to use the Logan and the motorway to divide Belfast. South and east would be loyalist, west and north would be republican. There is also a feeling that when Protestant houses are run down, the Housing Executive say ‘We’ll not bother fixing them - let them fall into disrepair and then offer them a house in Rathcoole, in Monkstown, offer them a house in Carrick. That gets them out’.