Living in Fear: Protestants in North Belfast

"I am afraid and really scared. I just don’t know why they have done this to me…"
(Elderly Protestant who received a threatening letter)

Protestants living in North Belfast are living in abject fear as gangs of armed Catholics roam the streets looking for the next victim. The Catholic gangs, armed with hurley sticks, bricks and on some occasions even with guns, patrol areas of North Belfast. Any Protestant they catch on the streets is beaten, and that also applies to Protestant children. The situation in North Belfast has become so bad that Protestant families are sending their children to live with relatives who live in other areas of Belfast. The police remain either unable, or as some Protestants believe, unwilling to stop these gangs from terrorizing vulnerable Protestant families. Many Protestants believe that this violence against them is "pay back" for not allowing the Catholic march to go past a Protestant enclave on its way to school. Protestants in the area are tired of the coat trailers and the violence that accompanies this jaunt into a Protestant area but they are now fearful that Catholics will take out their frustrations on vulnerable Protestant families.

The Protestant community in North Belfast has become accustomed to violence over the last 30 years as the IRA in areas such as Ardoyne have killed many members of their community. Now they are faced with a new horror, their children have become sectarian targets. Whilst many parents are prepared to live with the threat of violence against them they cannot continue to live in an area in which their children are also subjected to violence. Some families have already began to move away:

"During the day you went on with your own routine but as soon as night fell I’d start to panic…It was especially bad during the summer. Every other night we had to get the children out in their pajamas and bring them to my parents house…We were the only house in the area to have a reinforced door and plastic windows put in." (A Protestant resident North Belfast)

Unfortunately this is a growing trend in North Belfast as Protestant families, particularly those with young children or elderly residents come under attack. Night after night their windows are smashed, their doors kicked in and petrol bombs and blast bombs are thrown at their homes. No family, no matter what their religion, should have to live under conditions like this.

The violence itself has taken a sinister new twist with the targeting of the elderly and the very young. The two most vulnerable groupings within society are now the targets for sectarian thugs. In Ardoyne elderly Protestant pensioners have received letters in the post purporting to come from the North Belfast Catholic Reaction Force (a label of convenience sometimes used by the IRA) telling them that unless they leave the area they will be targeted. It is probable that their Catholic neighbours sent the letters but the use of the term Catholic Reaction Force suggests a more sinister group of individuals may be at work. The motivation for the intimidation was, however, clear as the letters, that had been stenciled, read:

"Stop the protest at Holy Cross school or you will be targeted by the North Belfast Catholic Reaction Force."

The peaceful protest of the Protestant people has been reciprocated with violence. The elderly pensioners who received these letters had no involvement with the protest but the message was clear: stop your peaceful protest or we will use violence to stop it.

Those Protestants who had been in two minds whether or not to move will have had their minds made up by the apparent murder of a young Protestant boy, Thomas McDonald, as he cycled his bike near to a Catholic area. It appears that the car, driven by an adult woman and with several male passengers, upon seeing that the boy was a local Protestant pursued him in the car and run over him injuring him horrifically. The young boys mother rushed to the scene only to find that she could do nothing but cradle him as he lay dying. The attacks against Protestant children have, however, not stopped but have intensified as Catholic gangs have gone on the rampage throughout North Belfast. Local Protestant children from the Model school had to flee for their lives as their school bus was stoned and the windows smashed in showering them with broken glass. Even going to the local play park is now no longer an option for Protestant children living in parts of North Belfast. One young boy, aged 8, almost lost an eye as he came under attack from a gang of 12 men throwing bricks and roof slates. The young boy had been playing with his cousin on a swing when the attack happened. Another mother with two young children had to run for her life as yet again a gang of men attacked her and her two young children. She had to lift her two children and run for her life as missiles rained down around her.

It is now time for those orchestrating such attacks amongst the Catholic community to stop before yet more life is lost. This campaign of low intensity terror being waged against vulnerable Protestants is despicable and it is up to those with influence in the Catholic community to call off these gangs. No family, no matter what their religion or politics, should be subjected to intimidation and violence, No principle is worth the life of a child.

We call upon the Catholic parents in the Holy Cross dispute to do the decent and honorable thing and use the alternative route that causes no sectarian offence to their embattled and fearful Protestant neighbours.