Andersontown News, August 29, 2002 - http://www.irelandclick.com/

Inside Cluan Place

Since the beginning of June, East Belfast has been at the centre of some of the most violent street scenes witnessed in the history of the North's conflict.

The nightly riots and disturbances have been portrayed largely as two communities at each other’s throats with PSNI riot squads and the British army sandwiched in the middle.

In a bid to uncover the truth behind Belfast's most violent interface the Andersonstown News this week went behind the dividing wall and into the loyalist Cluan Place.

The first thing that strikes any visitor is the size of Cluan Place – the area is no more than a small cul-de-sac.

Most of the houses have been abandoned, with heavy metal shutters on the windows painted red, white and blue.

Only about eight houses remain occupied, there are no children in the street – families with children have all left.

That is no surprise. During the month of June, I spent a night in the Short Strand and loud rave music was played from Cluan Place until the next morning. I remember thinking how anyone living there with children must be at their wits’ end.

A small group of residents sit out on the street under a makeshift shelter and any visitor is immediately treated with suspicion.

Having been in the Short Strand during the worst of the disturbances I am amazed that the huge security operations that have been put in place have been unable to control attacks from this area.

It is so small – just one way in and one way out – three jeeps would be enough to block the entrance and stop hordes of loyalists who have been seen in this area.

What is also evident is that the security fence recently raised to try and control the situation has merely created a platform for attacks to be launched.

The scaffolding used to erect the fence has been left on the loyalist side making it easy to climb up the huge wall to launch any attack. The paint left in footprints on the scaffolding and the paint on the rubber gloves that lie all around is the same colour as the paint splattered over the windows of homes in the nationalist Clandeboye.

We speak to the residents, none of whom will have their picture taken or go on the record. You can see how this small street would have once been a safe place to live.

Now taken over on a nightly basis by mobs of loyalists, you feel that the few mostly elderly people who still live here are as much victims as the people of the Strand.

Their area is covered in loyalist flags, their friends are long since gone.

We walk past the plastic tubes used to launch fireworks, although residents say they are not involved in any attacks.

One woman says to me: “They want our houses, but we’re not moving, not for them.”

Stone throwers strike after Trimble visits Cluan Place

With the siege of the Short Strand showing no sign of easing up, the small nationalist community says the feeling of abandonment and despair is growing rapidly.

In the last week alone violence has erupted every night, with local people accusing the PSNI of a heavy-handed and one-sided approach and compounding an already critical situation.

First Minister David Trimble visited the loyalist Cluan Place on Wednesday afternoon, and despite a heavy security presence, as the Ulster Unionist leader was leaving the area attacks began once again.

Local community worker and Short Strand resident Deborah Devenney finds it hard to speak about the events of the past few weeks without being overcome with emotion.

“Today, just minutes after David Trimble had left, the fireworks started coming over the wall.

This while the place was crawling with security and all captured on camera by visiting journalists,”
she said.

“What we would like to ask is, as First Minister to all the people of the North, why did David Trimble not visit the Short Strand?

“We have been under attack for months and yet he chose to simply pretend we didn't exist.”
On Wednesday morning a delegation of Trade Union officials visited the area to try and get an idea of the present situation.

Despite this and the high profile visit by David Trimble, as this paper went to print the evening’s stone and fireworks throwing into the Strand from the adjoining Cluan Place had already begun.

“The children living in this area are becoming seriously affected by the day to day events,” said Deborah.

“They have seen and experienced things that no child should ever have to.

“The fireworks with bolts and nails attached, the pipe bombs and the petrol bombs go on until the early hours of the morning, no-one gets any sleep.

“I don’t know how they are going to cope with being back at school, their concentration is at an all-time low.

“On Tuesday morning three jeeps of PSNI in full riot gear drove into Clandeboye Gardens and arrested a man from his home for riotous behaviour.

“This after weeks of intimidation with no attempt to apprehend the gangs of loyalists who operate with impunity from Cluan Place. “We are getting no protection from the PSNI, the media are still portraying this as a tit-for-tat situation,”
Deborah added.

“We have tried to highlight our plight as best we can, but we are running out of places to turn.”

Journalist: Allison Morris