UVF FLEXES ITS MUSCLES | A HIGHLY-ORGANISED AND ORCHESTRATED ATTACK

The Siege of Short Strand

BY PEADAR WHELAN

Sinn Féin Mayor of Belfast Niall Ó Donnghaile surveys the damage to the home of a Short Strand resident

» BY PEADAR WHELAN

IN the dark of night of Monday 20th June, more than 100 masked loyalists, wearing surgical gloves, attacked nationalist homes in the Short Strand area of east Belfast.
The highly-organised and orchestrated attack was as unprovoked as it was unexpected.
Dozens of homes in the Short Strand along the Mountpottinger and Albertbridge Roads, as well as at the Strand Walk interface with the Newtownards Road, suffered severe damage.
St Matthew’s Chapel, which stands on the Newtownards Road and Bryson Street junction, soon became the focus of a sustained loyalist bombardment.
Petrol bombs and paint-bombs along with bricks, bottles and fireworks rained down on the residents of the small nationalist enclave.
One young man from the Short Strand area was rushed to hospital with a suspected fractured skull, the result of having a breeze-block dropped on his head.
As the night wore on, the onslaught grew in intensity as nationalist residents came onto the streets to defend theirs and their neighbours’ homes. There was as many as 700 people involved in the clashes.
As well as the sustained attacks on nationalist homes, the UVF opened fire on the PSNI, showing their willingness to use weapons.
Sinn Féin Assembly member for South Belfast Alex Maskey, who was soon on the scene, told reporters:
“There is no doubt that the UVF is behind this onslaught.”
He was emphatic about the fact that the UVF was flexing its muscles in east Belfast, pointing out:
“There has been a marked increase in UVF flag flying, the painting of new UVF murals, and agitation around Orange parades.”
Despite the evidence on the ground and the Sinn Féin claims, unionist politicians and the media (particularly the BBC) insisted on characterising the trouble as “sectarian clashes, involving rival gangs”.
This began to fragment the following day when some commentators and the PSNI laid the blame firmly at the door of the UVF.
Spokespersons within the loyalist community, most notably Presbyterian Minister Mervyn Gibson, still tried to lay the blame for the rioting at the door of the residents of the Short Strand.
He maintained that republicans had been attacking unionist homes “for months” and loyalists had decided “enough was enough”.
Other commentators within the unionist and loyalist community have similarly been clutching at various straws.
Some are pointing the finger at the Historical Enquiries Team (HET), accusing the HET of bias against loyalists.
Others maintain that the loyalist working class is alienated from the political system, that they really do not have a voice.
The deprivation and poverty that are a blight in loyalist communities is also held up as a reason as to why these communities are as fractious as they are.
Each of these may go some way to helping people beyond loyalism understand what is going on within these communities but they do not address the mindset that motivates a UVF leadership that will organise an assault on a small nationalist enclave on the scale of what we saw on Monday 21st June.
As much as anything, it exposes the lack of political motivation within loyalism, and the reality that some loyalist leaders have built up criminal empires and their actions are more about defending this ‘community power’ than anything else.
Sinn Féin’s Seán Murray, who is the party spokesperson on parades and who engages regularly with representatives from the loyalist community across Belfast, spoke to ‘An Phoblacht’ about the Short Strand attacks.
Murray accused the UVF leadership of orchestrating a build-up of tension as a precursor to organising the onslaught on the Strand.
He maintained that the ratcheting-up of tension that resulted from low-level attacks on both loyalist and nationalist homes at the Short Strand interfaces could easily have been resolved.
“The UVF refused to take that option,” Seán Murray said. “We had just hours prior to the attacks agreed to a meeting to deal with any outstanding issues with UVF leadership figures.
“Some UVF interface workers refused to take calls from us, which was an indication that they were letting the pressure build up. They clearly wanted to flex their muscles.”
Murray also addressed so-called ‘dissidents’ who opened fire during the Short Strand disturbances, wounding a press photographer from west Belfast.
“Their action served no purpose. It did nothing to defend the people of the Short Strand. Their actions served only to take the media focus away from the UVF onslaught while further endangering the lives of local residents.”
Meanwhile loyalists again attacked the PSNI after the ‘Mini-Twelfth’ parade in east Belfast on Friday 1st July.
As thousands of Orange marchers, accompanied by UVF and UDA bands, passed the Short Strand, drunken hangers-on shouted abuse and gestured at nationalists from the Short Strand.
As the march ended, the PSNI shepherded the loyalists back towards the Castlereagh Street and Templemore Avenue junction where they attacked the PSNI.
Later that night a couple of hundred loyalists returning from the march clashed with the PSNI.
The Orange Order washed its hands of the trouble, blaming the “MTV generation” of youngsters for the violence.
Sinn Féin MLA Alex Maskey said the Orange Order blaming MTV for drunken violence at their parades is further evidence of an organisation unwilling to accept responsibility for its actions:
“When it comes to disorder and illegality at Orange parades it is never the fault of the Order.
“Over the years,  nationalists, the police, the Parades Commission and the weather have been blamed for drunken bandsmen, Orangemen and hangers-on. Bizarrely, now MTV have been added to the list.
“It is time the Orange Order stopped blaming everyone else for events surrounding their parades and instead take action to see illegal and anti-social behaviour stopped.”