JUST WHO ARE THE VICTIMS IN THE NORTHERN IRELAND CONFLICT? 

The current phase of the Ulster troubles started in October 1968, when the Roman Catholic IRA, led by West Belfast Brigade IRA under Commander Gerry Adams embarked upon the chosen path of terrorism, mayhem and murder against the law abiding Protestant majority! 

In 1969, a 20 year old IRA volunteer named Martin McGuinness led the attack upon soldiers in Londonderry!

Since then there have been many victims, some would even venture to say that we have all been victims.

Recently however the Roman Catholic/Republican/SFIRA/Nationalist  movement seem to be portraying themselves as the victims of the troubles. They appear to be creating a hierarchy amongst victims and guess who is at the top – yes, you got it in one, the 'poor' Roman Catholic's. 

At least that is what they would have you believe. 

There are two interface areas dominating the headlines at the present time, one is in North Belfast and the other in East Belfast.

North Belfast

One of the Protestant areas of North Belfast is called Tigers Bay. The area for the sake of this article is bordered by Duncairn Gardens, Hallidays Road, North Queen Street and the Limestone Road. Of the two main interface flashpoints, the one which has featured most is the Hallidays and Limestone Roads junction. During 2001 (even before that) rioting at this flashpoint was constant as the Roman Catholic Republican agenda of greening North Belfast was in full swing. They are so intent on this that they launched attacks upon Tigers Bay on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day, 2001. 

The Roman Catholic Sinn Fein IRA propaganda machine is one of the best at putting a green spin on any story. For the last year they have repeatedly complained that people in the Newington area were being forced from their homes, the press took photos of their kids wearing hard hats while out playing holding a fistful of nuts and bolts (bought in the local hardware store). Every picture tells a story was their motto! It continued every time a home in Newington was hit they trotted out a female, tears tripping her with the children looking up at their distraught mother. "Yes she to was going to have to move house because of those Loyalist bigots" in this case the UDA. The UDA were blamed for every ill in North Belfast. The sad thing about it all was that the press believed the Sinn Fein spin. The stories where trotted out both on local and national TV portraying the people of Tigers Bay as sub human. The pictures were printed with a text provided by IRA. How could they (the UDA) do these terrible things to us poor Catholics? They are loyalist bigots. According to the press the good people of Tigers Bay where the worlds worst, they were the only ones to do anything wrong. The statements from Gerard Brophy and Gerry Kelly were trotted out word for word and never ever challenged by the media. It got to the stage that you knew exactly what was going to be said before they opened their mouths. The moral of the story being, tell the same lie over and over again and  people would believe you. It worked. If you come from the Bay you are sub human and to be demonised by all, the press portrayed the residents as the lowest of the low. This is of course far from the truth.

Last October I took two friends from London around the city and paid a visit to Tigers Bay. I took them to the junction of Hallidays/Limestone Road and let them survey the scene. I didn’t have to say anything. As I said before every picture tells a story. They were stunned by the number of empty houses, houses vacated by residents of Tigers Bay. The number of Protestants/Loyalists families forced out of their homes through Roman Catholic terrorist violence must be approaching 100. The number forced out of Newington and the surrounding area is much less, in fact a lot less. It is clear for all to see who in this part of Belfast are the aggressors.

Now just in case you do not believe me have a look at the photograph.

This is a photograph of Mileriver Street taken from Alexandra Park looking up to the Limestone Road and Tigers Bay. It is a photograph of an area, which has been under a constant Roman Catholic onslaught led by the IRA for the last couple of years. Families lived in these houses, children played in these streets, this was a living and vibrant community, Protestants and Loyalists lived in these houses.

These people were forced out of their homes by violent Roman Catholic terrorists hell bent on greening North Belfast. the RC/IRA attacked Protestant families with bombs, guns, petrol bombs etc. They even fired a rocket-propelled grenade at Currie Primary School just to the left of the picture. Needless to say my two friends from London had a better idea of just who was putting who out of their homes. It wasn’t the Protestant community, it was the (poor) Roman Catholics  from Newington.  Strange how the press don't want to  pick up these simple facts???

East Belfast

East Belfast is so different compared to the north of the City. Probably a similar size of population but this time rather than being 50/50 it is more like 95/5 in favour of the Protestant community. However for most Protestant to get to the City Centre you have to go past or through an area called Short Strand. Short Strand is a small Republican community (approximately 3,000), but it’s impact is significant. The present troubles have included the first gun battle fought by IRA in June 1970 when they opened fire on their Protestant neighbours and murdered 2 totally innocent people and injured 30 others some seriously. They started as they meant to go on and for the past 30 years or so have continually attacked the Protestant community e.g. coming home from the city after a night out.

IRA/Sinn Fein are dominant in the area and have ensured the propaganda machine is in overdrive always ensuring that the old phrase “never let a good lie get in the way of the truth” is to the fore. Their latest propaganda is based on the biblical story David and Goliath. The spin is why would a wee small community like poor wee Short Strand pick a fight with a huge area like Protestant East Belfast. There are 57,000 or so of them and 3-4,000 of us, please don’t be silly we would never ever threaten our neighbours because there are so many of them they would over run us. Now if you repeat that little story to yourself over and over and over again you will start to believe the myth. That’s how IRA/Sinn Fein works. They programme their spokespeople (in East Belfast it’s Joe O’Donnell) to tell the same lie in each interface area, each time they appear on the news bulletins (which is nightly) hoping that eventually the world will believe them. It does – journalists investigating and establishing the truth – never!

Now let’s face facts. The only community to have expanded their territorial base in East Belfast is the Roman Catholic one No one, not even IRA/SF will dispute that one. Short Strand since the troubles began has exerted all kinds of pressure on it’s Prod Orange neighbours to move out of their houses so that they can take over our streets. They continue to do so and have targeted Madrid Street, Thistle Court and Cluan Place as their next targets. The pressure on these Protestant interface areas has been enormous. The homes in these areas have come under relentless attack from their Roman Catholic neighbours who literally live a stones throw away. Hate filled Republican gangs have attacked Thistle Court/Madrid Street area so often that the Government has had to build a new peace wall between the two communities. It was only last year that Roman Catholics tried to murder two Protestant pensioners in their home in Madrid Street, by breaking their windows and throwing in petrol bombs. What was the spin from IRA/SF – “everyone knows it was two fellas from Sydenham.” The Roman Catholic Sinn Fein/IRA  have stated that lie that so often that the people in Short Strand firmly believe it! 
The most serious attacks in the East of the city however were carried out on a small cul-de-sac called Cluan Place.