Jimmy Creighton, Shankill community activist
"If I was a few years younger, I'd be out rioting. Protestants have been
driven to this. The police aren't allowed to take on the IRA any more, so
they're trying to tramp us into submission instead. Well, they won't
succeed.
"They went hell for leather at us during the Springfield Road parade. They
arrived with two big bull-dozers and six water cannons. They beat
Protestants off the streets. People lost eyes from plastic bullets; a
15-year-old lost his testicles.
"I've seen broken legs and strapped-up shoulders this week. The police fired
450 plastic bullets at us in one day, more than they've fired at
nationalists in years.
"A clatter of plastic bullets was fired at Ardoyne nationalists this summer
and Sinn Féin were gurning. When we're targeted, their silence is deafening
- not that we'd want support from them scumbags anyway.
"The British government has ordered the police not to touch Catholics –
that's the price for ensuring no more bombs causing £5 million worth of
damage in London. I was intimidated out of Ardoyne in 1971. It's worse
there now – Protestant school-children are being attacked.
"Sinn Féin say there's poor leadership in the Protestant community. That's
true but who are they to tell us? They're sanctimonious bastards; I've
scraped better off the sole of my shoe."
Margaret McClenaghan, Sinn Féin councillor
"UDA members are standing at illegal roadblocks shouting abuse and throwing
missiles, trying to antagonise nationalists.
"We're working flat out to keep the kids in Ardoyne from responding. We want
them to stay out of trouble. Loyalist aggression is frightening; the police
are standing idly by.
"A 77-year-old woman, her two sons, and 11-year-old grandson were trailed
from their car by armed and masked UVF men on the Shore Road within sight of
the PSNI.
"The sons asked for help. The police said if they didn't clear off, they'd
be arrested. Night after night, loyalists set up roadblocks on the Crumlin
Road and Twaddell Avenue and the police sit in their Land Rovers doing
nothing.
"But on the Twelfth, when nationalists attempted to set up a blockade in
Ardoyne, the police moved in with their boots and batons, kicking and
shoving people off the road.
"The other night, residents were standing on the footpath at Ardoyne shops –
their own shops in their own area – when a police inspector asked them to
move because the sight of them was agitating loyalists at the illegal
roadblocks. Ardoyne people feel the PSNI does nothing to protect them. It's
hard to dispute that."
Harry, North Belfast Orangeman.
"They say we're making a fuss over nothing, that there's only a 260-step
difference between our chosen route on the Springfield Road and the one we
were allowed to take.
"But it's 260 steps taken from us today, it'll be 460 steps next year, and
660 steps the one after that. All the time, nationalists are chipping away
at our culture.
"They keep saying we can't march here and we can't march there because these
areas are now Catholic. They're only Catholic because Protestants were
driven out. It's ethnic cleansing.
"It's not natural for Protestants to wreck all round them. But our ones see
where violence got the IRA, so their attitude is 'if we cause enough trouble
we can get what we want too'.
"I joined the Orange Order 40 years ago and I've never seen the police
behave like they did last week. They were so hostile towards us. The old RUC
was never like that. They knew who we were and we knew who they were.
"I haven't a clue who this new crowd are. Half of them seem to be English.
Maybe they're British soldiers in police uniforms."
* Harry's real name can't be used because Orangemen aren't allowed to speak
to the press without Grand Lodge authority.
Paddy Murray, former IRA prisoner
"If there's all this deprivation in loyalist areas, they don't need to riot.
Let the Assets Recovery Agency seize UDA and UVF money and redistribute it
in the community.
"They say ordinary loyalists have nothing, well their paramilitary bosses
are driving around in Mercs and BMWs, wearing big gold chains around their
necks. I'm struggling to make ends meet. If I was a senior ex-loyalist
prisoner, I'd be a millionaire.
"I know them from jail and they don't have the ideals republicans have. They
join to be top dog in their area or as cover for their criminal activities.
I'm not surprised they're organising these disturbances.
"They're very mixed up people. They're on the side of the state but it's
their neighbours – peelers and screws – arresting them and locking them up.
What does the loyalist campaign amount to now: driving Catholics and the odd
immigrant from their homes?
"They demand the right to march but they won't tolerate others. They even
objected to the gay rights' parade in Belfast. They tried to stop us holding
the first ever republican march in Ballymena a few weeks ago and that was
through a predominantly nationalist area.
"The Parades Commission gave us only 300 yards to march along but we didn't
mind – 300 yards is 300 yards, and maybe we'll get 600 next year."
Diane Dodds, DUP Assembly member
"Peter Hain lambasted unionists for a lack of leadership. He's one to talk.
During the worst weekend of violence in Northern Ireland in years, our
Secretary of State couldn't even be bothered flying here. He stayed in
Britain.
"I don't condone the wanton destruction we've seen but sadly it was
inevitable. The traditional Orange parade takes only nine minutes and five
seconds to pass along the Springfield Road. Why can't nationalists live with
that? It doesn't say much about their recognition of cultural diversity.
"There are widespread complaints of police heavy-handedness. A lady, who
came to my office this week, had been shot in the stomach with a plastic
bullet. There was rioting in the street and she was standing at her door
when a bullet ricocheted.
"After she got out of hospital, she went to make a complaint. Tennant Street
police station sent her to Grosvenor Road station – they told her they were
too busy to take her statement.
"There is absolute rage in my community about how Protestants are treated.
It's displayed visibly on the streets of Belfast, but there's also the
sullen, dour rage of Middle Ulster – people are fuming in front of their
TVs."
Patricia Lewsley, SDLP chairperson
"The old people were terrified. A rumour that loyalist paramilitaries were
about to turn off the water and electricity caused panic in Dunmurry, the
area I represent. In these situations, the elderly and sick suffer most.
"The UDA and UVF must feel like really big men being able to scare the most
vulnerable. A five-months' pregnant woman was punched in the face at an
illegal roadblock round the corner from my home. Her 'crime' was that she
hadn't been able to turn her car fast enough in the street.
"In the SDLP, we take a tough line on IRA violence despite the personal
risks involved. Unionist politicians don't do the same with loyalist
violence.
"The PSNI did a great job at the march, standing up to these thugs, but they
must do the same with the roadblocks. The number of young people rioting
shows loyalist paramilitaries are still recruiting. Years of good
cross-community work has been undone.
"In the few religiously mixed working-class parts of Belfast – like Isadore
Avenue off the Springfield Road – people are talking of moving out. These
streets will become solely Catholic or Protestant.
"We should be learning to live together side-by-side. Instead, there's
growing segregation. Everybody is retreating into the trenches."
