SHORT STRAND STANDS UNBROKEN

Posted by Jim on January 19, 2013

  The Short Strand, a small working class nationalist/republican enclave  of less than 3,000 men, women and children, has come under a renewed  siege in the past week by violent loyalists.

 The scenes have recalled some of the worst days of the conflict and have  brought an international focus on recent events in east Belfast.

  Although situated on the east bank of the River Lagan and completely  dwarfed by its 60,000 strong unionist neighbours, who surround it on the  other three sides, unionists and loyalists have always attempted to  portray the minority community as the aggressors.

  For a brief period on Saturday, there was hand-to-hand fighting as  nationalist residents and home-owners bravely defended their district  following a loyalist ‘protest’.

  Rumours of ‘one last big riot’ planned by the unionist paramilitary UVF  were borne out last Saturday, when elements of the PSNI appeared to be  acting in support of a malign agenda. By mysteriously blocking the  usual return route by protestors from the city centre, riot-ready  loyalist youths were encouraged to return to east Belfast via the  overwhelmingly nationalist Albertbridge Road, where trouble was  guaranteed.

  On Sunday, debris was still visible as Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams  walked around the Short Strand and spoke with residents whose homes were  damaged.

  He pointed out that it was the 15th time that an illegal loyalist  procession had passed the neighbourhood since the flag protests began.

 He warned that someone could be killed if loyalist protests continued,  and accused the PSNI of “facilitating” the illegal loyalist protests.

 “The people of the Short Strand were let down by the PSNI and let’s be  very clear about this, the people in the Short Strand would not have an  awful lot of confidence in the PSNI to start with,” he said.

  Despite his concerns, there were subsequent attacks on both Monday and  Tuesday, with little protection from the PSNI.

 A Catholic pensioner whose house was attacked by petrol-bombers has told  how he fought the flames with a garden hose as bottles and paint bombs  rained down.

  Tommy McNulty’s Strand Walk home, which he shares with his 80-year-old  wife Kathleen, was caught in a hail of petrol bombs, causing scorch  damage and setting fire to the roof of a garden shed.

 The retired dockworker said at least four or five petrol bombs had  landed in the back garden of his two-storey home, near the loyalist  Newtownards Road.

  Bricks, broken bottles and paint bombs pelted his home and neighbouring  homes.

  Mr McNulty, who is forced to keep fire extinguishers in the garden in  case of attack, used a garden hose to fight the flames on Monday night.

  “We were sitting in the house and we heard the crash of the bottles and  then we heard the war cry,” he said.

 “We were attacked last Monday, Thursday and Friday by paint bombs and  bottles as well as the latest incident.

  “We were lucky last night was cold and damp which helped put the petrol  bombs out and I was out with the hose as well while there was still  stuff coming down.

 “When something like that happens it is scary, especially when you are  pensioners.

  “When you see something like that you do panic.”

 And on Tuesday, under cover of dark and away from the cameras, a masked  loyalist mob attacked children and adults with Special Needs at St  Matthew’s, the local parish church.

 As petrol bombs, paint bombs and other missiles were landing within  feet, the group was led away from St Matthew’s church by courageous  workers.

 Uneaten toast and tea abandoned by the children as they fled were still  visible in the parochial hall the following morning.

  Pilib O Ruanai said his Down’s Syndrome daughter and the others  attending the Special Needs club had been badly distressed by the  terrifying situation.

  It was “a wee haven for them, some-where to go and meet their peers and  it gives parents a bit of a break,” he said.

 Parochial hall worker William Ward said when he arrived, over 100  loyalists were involved in the attack.

  “We made a judgment it was time for the people to be taken away,” he  said. “They were frightened and knew something was wrong and we tried  not to exaggerate what was happening. They were just sitting there  eating their tea and toast and then people came in to take them away.

  “It upset them and frightened them and it frightened a lot of adults  there as well.”

 Des Dalton of Republican Sinn Fein said the continuing loyalist  sectarian attacks on the people of the Short Strand illustrates the  “unchanging reality” of life for large sections of the nationalist  community in Belfast and throughout occupied Six Counties.

 “Once again it is the nationalist people who must bear the brunt of  loyalist mobs who have unleashed havoc in order to further the political  agenda of the unionist political establishment.”

 He said that the unionist establishment traditionally used armed  loyalism “as a weapon in its arsenal”.

  “The events in Belfast and other areas of the Six Counties over the past  number of weeks underline the abnormality of the Six-County state. As  Republican Sinn Fein warned in 1998, the Stormont Agreement has simply  reinforced and institutionalised sectarianism in the Six Counties.

 “Over the past 15 years it has served only to deepen the sectarian  divide, thus condemning the people of the Six Counties to an ongoing  cycle of sectarian conflict.

 “This cycle of sectarianism can only be broken by the dismantling of the  two partitionist states and the creation of a New Ireland.”