Catholic Short Strand is a cluster of streets almost entirely surrounded by protestant dominated east Belfast. We look at the area's very troubled history.
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So how did such a catholic enclave come about in what is Protestant and largely unionist East Belfast? The majority of people who settled here in the 19th century came from rural County Down and arrived in Belfast, as did their protestant neighbours, to take up employment in its mills and burgeoning ship building industries. Indeed the Harland and Wolff Shipyard cranes can be seen from Short Strand.
As we continue on down Madrid Street, we come in sight of the infamous Peace line. It's decorated here, so as to make the best of a bad deal, with bits of artwork. Again nice to see local artwork rather than paramilitary murals. But, as we look down Bryson Street we see the extent of this interface that keeps two communities separated. This whole area on both sides of the divide is called Ballymacarrett and to explain why these walls are required it’s necessary to know the area’s dark history.
The more recent troubles in this area, that have caused these walls to be erected was in fact nothing new. Back in 1920 this part of Belfast suffered very badly in what was called the Belfast Pogroms. These events were incited by Unionist press, who claimed that Catholics were taking the jobs of protestant workers in Belfast and that they had no right to employment. Unionist and Orange leaders made speeches further supporting these assertions some of which was bigoted and highly sectarian and probably not helpful to repeat here. The repercussions of this hate speech was terrifying.
The incitement to violence by Protestant press and political leaders resulted in hundreds of Catholic workmen being set upon in the Belfast shipyards. The pogroms saw 400 people killed and over 2000 injured by armed mobs. British authorities did little to intervene. Thousands of people were driven from their homes many of which were subsequently set on fire. A Dublin Castle report from 1921 puts the number of burnt houses at 123, all of which, without exception were the homes of Catholics. So these peace lines are nothing new in this part of the city. Short strand peace lines were erected in 1922 between the junction of Seaford street and the Newtownards Road as the residents sought to protect themselves from their protestant neighbours.
After the outbreak of the more recent troubles in 1969 again this neighbourhood came under siege. The residents of Short Strand numbered about 6000 at that time whereas their protestant neighbours numbered 10 times that. 150 catholic families were driven from their homes between August 1969 and June 1970
A citizen’s Defence Committee was set up and it mediated with the Police and British Army to acquire a written agreement that security forces would protect the area and that assurance was given, in what was known as a ‘Joint military and Police security plan for Ballymaccarret’, but a battle ensued around the area of St Matthew’s Church in June 1970 - Now known as the battle for St Matthew’s, in which the security forces failed to intervene. Petrol bombs were thrown at the church by loyalist mobs and a gun battle ensued. Local people were unfortunately left to make their own defence. The press at the time had said that the mob were responding to snipers firing shots from the belfry of the church, but this was later disproven. It’s all a very sad state of affairs and goes to show how dangerous hate speech is. Then we visit the gates of the Short Strand Newtownards Road entrance. You’ll notice there’s no entrance for vehicular traffic here for obvious safety reasons. It’s unnerving how these peace walls and security measure become written into the built fabric of the city. So the city’s roads and layout become in themselves peace lines.
And a quick walk down Beechfield street shows a street that the residents obviously take pride in, look at all the little benches outside everyone’s houses. And this is a perfect example of the old Short Strand social housing stock that I mentioned at the start of the film. But they look great.
Now the other thing you’ll notice are a couple of flags in support of Palestine here. This is something you’ll see in Belfast - Palestine flags in republican areas and Israeli flags in Loyalist areas. I see a single tricolour there too. But largely the topic of flags, which is so controversial here in Belfast, doesn’t seem to be much of an issue in Short Strand.