It’s not a big estate, merely a small cul-de-sac, but
Cluan Place in the Albertbridge Road area of East Belfast
became in recent weeks the latest in a line of places to experience
misery and suffering at the hands of republican extremists.
While the rest of the nation rejoiced at the Golden Jubilee
of Her Majesty the Queen and either celebrated with street
parties or events, or simply watched the glorious spectacle
on television, the people of Cluan Place were trying to hide
in terror from petrol bombs, bricks and missiles thrown into
their tiny street over the ‘peace wall’ from the
adjoining Short Strand.
Elderly women who should have been sitting back and relaxing
in the sunshine as they reflected on the past 50 years of
the Queen’s reign, were reduced to tears, as they stood
in their rubble-strewn gardens, bewildered and terrified about
what was happening around them.
And young couples were also sickened by the damage to their
homes, and could only accept the help and advice of community
workers who moved their furniture into vans. Indeed, as several
of the houses were being boarded up, a gunman from the nationalist
side climbed up on the wall and fired shots which wounded
two young Protestant men.
Five Protestants were wounded in the gunfire from Short Strand,
and most of the 25 houses were vacated by the pensioners and
the young couples who had lived there, hitherto happily, and
doing their best to create a contented community.
Families were housed temporarily in hotels or with friends,
and in the circumstances under which they had fled, it is
hardly surprising that some people declared they would not
return to Cluan Place.
One can understand their feelings, and they cannot be criticised
for this decision. But the Housing Executive and authorities
must not allow the bully boys of the I.R.A. to force the Protestants
out of this small, but vital estate.
To capitulate to the republicans would be to add Cluan Place
to the long list of Belfast areas ethnically cleansed of Protestants
in the past 30 years – New Barnsley, Grosvenor Road,
Cliftonville Road, Upper Meadow Street, Spamount Street, the
‘Bally’ streets of Oldpark, and many more.
Cluan Place must remain a Protestant and Unionist area, otherwise
the message will go out that no part of Belfast, not even
in the stronghold of the East is safe from republican takeover.
In recent times, republicans have tried unsuccessfully to
add Whitewell estate, ‘Tigers Bay’ and Glenbryn
to that list.
Cluan Place is also strategically placed, situated as it
is adjacent to Ballymacarrett Orange Hall, and close to Templemore
Avenue, meeting place of the Orangemen of No. 6 District on
the Twelfth.
Like its close neighbour, Thistle Court, another small Protestant
enclave subjected to bombardment by republicans, Cluan Place
represents a symbol of Unionism, Protestantism and loyalism
in the Short Strand triangle, and republicans find this very
hard to accept.
The predictable reaction of some elements of the loyalist
population in the days following the shooting of the five
Protestants and evacuation of Cluan Place was wrong, however
those who indulged in the revenge attacks felt.
The stone-throwing into the grounds of the Roman Catholic
Church on Newtownards Road while a funeral was taking place
was unacceptable, and to be fair, influential figures on the
loyalist side intervened to stop it.
But the low-key reaction of sections of the media to the
four days of attacks on Cluan Place, and the failure of the
police to move into Short Strand to arrest the people carrying
out the gun attacks on Protestants sparked off the retaliation
– attacks seized on by republican spokesmen to try and
suggest that it was Protestants who had carried out the original
attacks.
In fact, the attacks on Thistle Court and on Orangemen began
last Twelfth when No. 6 District was returning from the demonstration.
There is a strong feeling on the Protestant side that the
attempts to drive the Protestants out of Cluan Place is part
of a bigger picture aimed at disrupting or even preventing
Orange parades along lower Newtownards Road and Albertbridge
Road.
Orangemen and Unionists must be on their guard and be vigilant
in the days ahead, but loyalists must not fall into traps
laid for them by republican enemies of Ulster, and must maintain
their dignity, refusing to be drawn into riotous situations.
But there is also a heavy onus on the police and security
forces to deal more vigorously with those who instigate attacks
on places like Cluan Place and Thistle Court. Everything possible
must be done to prevent a summer of discontent and turmoil
on the streets of Belfast and Northern Ireland.
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