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Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland
  Orange Standard

Calm Restored On The Shankill

Article 5 ~ April 2003

The dramatic events in the lower Shankill which ended in a 'purge' and expulsion of certain individuals has been followed by a period of calm and lack of press headlines.

That is something to be welcomed by all true loyalists and by people with goodwill towards this famous Belfast district.

There are many people who have sympathised with the good folk of the Shankill in their terrible difficulties. The Shankill has a special appeal for tens of thousands of people who live in other parts of the city and much further afield.

Once proudly regarded as 'the heart of the Empire', 'the Road' as it is affectionately known, has been a Protestant, Orange and Unionist heartland since the district became the famous road in the middle of the 19th century.

Protestant and Unionist in its allegiance, it has been the home of hard-working people who worked in the great linen mills of Belfast, and then Belfast shipyards and industries like Mackies. Running parallel with the Roman Catholic and nationalist Falls Road, the Shankill along with its neighbour shared the tensions and turmoil of Home Rule days and the serious violence following partition and the establishment of Northern Ireland.

But in between these periods of tension like 1886, 1912 and 1935, the Shankill enjoyed a harmonious live-and-let-live relationship with its neighbouring area. The Shankill was also a district which provided huge numbers of men for HM Forces in two World Wars, experiencing very heavy losses at the Somme in 1916.

It also had many of its people killed in the German air raids of 1941, including a large number killed in a direct hit on an air raid shelter at Percy Street.

Peace and the increasing prosperity of the post-war period gave hope for much better times in the Shankill. Housing was cramped and the Shankill had one of the largest populations of inner Belfast.

But this famous area was to experience its greatest suffering with the outbreak of the Troubles in 1969. Its geographical location and its fiercely loyalist tradition meant that the Shankill would often be in the front line of the violence inflicted during the 30 years of the Troubles.

Hundreds of Shankill people lost their lives in the Troubles, many of the young men went to prison for offences related to the civil disorder, and a large number of families fled the area in search of a quieter life.

But even more people moved because of the irresponsible and harsh redevelopment schemes carried out in the Shankill. From the early 1970s until the mid-90s the Greater Shankill's population fell from 78,000 to just under 30,000. People promised new houses back in the Shankill moved to the suburbs or to towns on the periphery of Belfast, but the promise of being re-housed in their beloved Shankill did not materialise.

However, thanks to the pressure of the Orange Order, the Unionist parties, and the community leaders in the Shankill who have worked untiringly and often without publicity, the Housing Executive and housing associations showed a positive response, and in the past 10 years or so many new houses have been built in the Greater Shankill.

This gave rise to the hope of former residents being attracted back, and it gave a shot in the arm to churches, schools, Orange Lodges and other organisations which had felt the effects of the population exodus.

Then, just when things were looking up, came the vicious feud between rival loyalist paramilitary groups, and the movement of large numbers of families within the Shankill area. All this culminated in the huge turmoil and climax of the past few months.

There are encouraging signs of a coming together of people in the common cause of making the Shankill work again. The return of more normal times and the relative quietness of recent times has been welcomed by the overwhelming majority of people in the Shankill who just want peace and a chance to get on with their lives.

No-one deserves it more than the Shankill community and the Government and other authorities like the housing bodies must do their utmost to offer hope. In spite of excellent new estates, there is a need for many more modern homes in the Shankill - the lower Shankill, for example, has large swathes of wasteland which would be ideal for housing.

Jobs are needed to give the young people a chance of securing a good job and a stake in the community. And much much more must be done to provide greater education facilities in the Greater Shankill. The point has often been made that few children in the Shankill go on to further education and to university.

That doesn't mean the children of the Shankill are born with less potential for skills and education than their counterparts anywhere else. On the contrary, many famous people have been born in the Greater Shankill. It just means that the enormous potential must be tapped and a means found for harnessing it to the full.

An exciting new future for the Shankill beckons, provided everyone plays their part. The Orange and Black Institutions which have many lodges and preceptories in the area are ready and willing to play their part in this revival in the fortunes of the Shankill Road.

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