Protestants in a historic part of the Shankill were subjected to a sectarian attack recently, reminiscent of the bad days of the Troubles of the past 30 years.

The elderly residents of Boyd Street, in the Brown Square area were awakened by the sound of breaking glass. On investigating, they found a trail of damage in their street, with traffic cones thrown through windows, doors kicked in and cars damaged.

The attack was carried out by seven or eight youths, who shouted republican slogans. It was rightly described by DUP councillor, Diane Dodds as an attack on the homes of vulnerable people, most of them senior citizens.

Boyd Street which is at the bottom of the Shankill Road, is adjacent to the nationalist Carrick Hill and Divis Street areas. The Brown Street population is a lot smaller than it used to be, due to redevelopment in the 1970s, and a large proportion of the residents are elderly.

Brown Square, which once had a police station, was famous for many years for the impressive Orange arch containing many Protestant messages, which spanned the district.

There is a sadder and more sinister link with the Troubles of the early 1920s. In 1921, republicans threw a bomb into the home of a well-known Orangeman, Joseph Donnelly, killing two of his children and wounding other members of the family.

The area was virtually under siege for weeks at the time, as IRA gunmen, many of them imported from the South, ambushed Protestant shipyard workers, and shot dead several policemen.

Law and order was restored when 'A' Specials, many of them ex-servicemen, were brought into the Brown Street area in large numbers, and they defeated the gunmen in a number of pitched battles, including one at Carrick Hill.

The most famous of the senior RUC officers of the period, District-Inspector John Nixon, was in charge of the Brown Street police station during this tumultuous period.

D.I. Nixon, who left the RUC amid controversy some years later, was an extremely popular figure in the Shankill area. A Cavan-born Orangeman, he was elected as an MP to the Northern Ireland Parliament by the people of the Shankill.