{"id":49065,"date":"2025-09-07T11:46:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T11:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/49065\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T11:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T11:46:09","slug":"why-us-ask-last-catholic-family-in-belfast-housing-development-plagued-by-intimidation-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/49065\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Why us?\u2019 ask last Catholic family in Belfast housing development plagued by intimidation \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

On the inside of a front door in a Belfast<\/a> housing development, a letterbox is fitted with a lock to stop petrol bombs being thrown in.<\/p>\n

Each morning, the couple living in their redbrick new-build home unlock the specially designed mechanism before opening a padlock on their front gate to let the postman in.<\/p>\n

This was supposed to be their \u201cdream home\u201d. They moved in last November after spending years on a social-housing waiting list.<\/p>\n

Today, they are the last Catholic family living on Annalee Street in north Belfast, about 3km from the city centre.<\/p>\n

Every window in the house is alarmed and five security cameras \u2013 triggered by any movement outside \u2013 send images to their mobile phones which vibrate constantly in their hands. They are desperate to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always lived in mixed areas; we always wanted it to be cross-community for our daughter,\u201d said the woman, who does not want to be identified.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am disabled and we had lost everything materially. My husband lost his job. We\u2019ve been in homeless places that had rats and mice. This was us; this was our chance to get a new life.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe street is right on the peace line between the two communities but there hadn\u2019t been any trouble there in a long time. Even though we had it in the back of our heads about what it used to be like, we thought: \u2018We\u2019re moving on; this is a new generation\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

For the past week, anger at sectarian and racist attacks in this interface area of Lower Oldpark has dominated the news agenda<\/a> in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

Arson attacks in Ballymena and the targeting of a home in Donaghadee, Co Antrim, are also being investigated as race-related hate crimes by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Sectarian intimidation in north Belfast linked to UDA, says police commanderOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, a meeting was attended by police, politicians, community groups and residents in north Belfast to address what one woman described as \u201csustained intimidation\u201d by loyalist paramilitaries since May.<\/p>\n

An Ulster Defence Association (UDA) flag flies from a lamp-post at the end of Annalee Street, where three Catholic families have fled their homes.<\/p>\n

Windows in one property along the otherwise pristine row of 10 houses are boarded up.<\/p>\n

Every other lamp-post in the street is bedecked with Union Jack flags, which were put up by masked men in July.<\/p>\n

\"AA UDA loyalist paramilitary flag on a lamp-post near new homes in Annalee Street, north Belfast. Photograph: Liam McBurney\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s meeting took place in Girdwood Community Hub, a \u201cshared space\u201d leisure centre on a site that was formerly British army barracks directly facing Annalee Street. <\/p>\n

Clifton Park Avenue, the street leading to Girdwood, was once the \u201cno man\u2019s land of no man\u2019s lands\u201d, according to Sinn F\u00e9in North Belfast MP John Finucane.<\/p>\n

He organised the meeting and warned of a \u201csinister element\u201d involved in the intimidation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think common sense would tell you there\u2019s not an individual group of racists attacking people and a separate sectarian group. The two go hand in hand,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When Finucane was a pupil at St Malachy\u2019s College in north Belfast in the 1990s, British army helicopters regularly landed at the huge military base as he played football. <\/p>\n

\"SinnSinn F\u00e9in MP John Finucane and party colleague Car\u00e1l N\u00ed Chuil\u00edn MLA on Tuesday after hosting a meeting at Girdwood Community Hub in response to violent incidents in north Belfast. Photograph: Pacemaker <\/p>\n

\u201cIn years gone past this was an incredibly dangerous place … the amount of people that would have been killed not even within a square mile of here,\u201d added the MP, who is awaiting a public inquiry into the death of his father, the solicitor Pat Finucane, who was murdered by the UDA in 1989.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we had had the meeting at Girdwood is testament to the amount of change that\u2019s taken place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point is not to bring it back to the past but the point is there\u2019s a tremendous amount of work that\u2019s been done on all sides, at all levels, whether it\u2019s community, political, civic, international, to invest in areas that needed it. Girdwood is a really good example of that \u2013 shared housing is a really good example of that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there are those malevolent forces that still exist in these areas that see that as a threat, that see progress as a threat. And they are determined to bring areas like that, and society in more general terms, back to 30 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AnnaleeAnnalee Street, Belfast. Photograph: Arthur Allison\/Pacemaker <\/p>\n

The new Clanmil Association development on Annalee Street was built on land that had lain derelict for decades after Catholic residents were burnt out of their homes at the beginning of the Troubles in 1969.<\/p>\n

Marketed as \u201clifetime homes\u201d, the social houses were allocated based on need.<\/p>\n

Sitting in their livingroom the day after the meeting \u2013 which they attended \u2013 the couple pointed to the Union flag directly outside. Every time the wind blows, the security lights they\u2019ve installed come on because \u201cthe flag is so big and blowing at the front door\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be quite scary when you\u2019re on your own. I\u2019ve caught myself jumping. The lights are on and off,\u201d the woman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolice came in three weeks ago and were shining torches in the street,\u201d her husband added. \u201cI was at work and my phone kept going off. I looked and there were 100 notifications linked to our security cameras. It was beep, beep, beep. You\u2019re worried all the time. <\/p>\n

\u201cI keep my phone resting beside me with the camera view on, so if anything happens I can give it a quick glance to see who it is \u2026 It\u2019s not a way to live.\u201d <\/p>\n

When the couple first moved into the house last November there was no tension and people were \u201cpleasant\u201d. Then, one evening in May, everything changed.<\/p>\n

The couple spoke quietly as they recalled how a masked man came to the window and put his finger across his throat as their daughter and her boyfriend were in the house.<\/p>\n

Within 45 minutes, there was \u201cpandemonium\u201d in the street as windows were smashed and one family ordered to leave.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was shouting and roaring by masked men saying: \u2018You\u2019ve an hour to get out; we\u2019re coming back\u2019,\u201d said the woman. \u201cThere were kids squealing and roaring; they were so frightened.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Boarded-upBoarded-up windows on a property on Annalee Street. Photograph: Arthur Allison\/Pacemaker<\/p>\n

For months, the family barricaded themselves into the house and took it in turns to stay up all night to \u201ckeep watch\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put the settee in front of our windows to make sure they weren\u2019t put in. The kitchen table was barricaded up against the back door,\u201d the man said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI follow the local football team [Cliftonville FC] but I don\u2019t wear colours if I\u2019m going to a match. I\u2019m very conscious I can\u2019t do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0End of segregation in Northern Ireland is a long way off, report findsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

At a Northern Ireland Policing Board meeting on Thursday, a senior officer confirmed that individuals linked to the UDA were involved in the sectarian intimidation.<\/p>\n

PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Davy Beck said there was no intelligence to suggest the attacks were \u201csanctioned at a senior level\u201d of the loyalist paramilitary group. <\/p>\n

To date, one person has been arrested and charged. <\/p>\n

The North\u2019s most senior police officer, Chief Constable Jon Boutcher, said the PSNI was \u201cthrowing the kitchen sink\u201d at bringing those responsible to justice.<\/p>\n

\"AA UDA flag on Annalee Street. Photograph: Arthur Allison\/Pacemaker <\/p>\n

But the couple living in Annalee Street said they have \u201cno faith\u201d in the police. Their support network has been community workers and local councillors, who \u201ccheck in with them daily\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince May, the threat has always been there. The same guys who put in the windows, we would have seen them walking up and down the street. We would have told the police,\u201d said the woman.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there\u2019s only been one arrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it wasn\u2019t for councillors like Tom\u00e1s [O\u2019Neill, of Sinn F\u00e9in] and Paul [McCusker, an Independent] and all the community workers on the ground, we would have nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The couple acknowledged that it is a \u201cminority\u201d of people behind the attacks and while welcoming condemnation by Stormont leaders, they want to see action.<\/p>\n

They have been informed if they leave their home, the only alternative is a hotel or flat in Co Fermanagh due to lengthy housing waiting lists in north Belfast.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I want to do is live here without fear or anything happening to us until we get away,\u201d said the woman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe saddest part for me is that we brought our daughter up in cross-community areas \u2013 she has Catholic and Protestant friends \u2013 but now there is a fear in her. She wasn\u2019t interested in what happened in the past. But now she is asking: \u2018Why us?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the inside of a front door in a Belfast housing development, a letterbox is fitted with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[663,9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,954,47,7,8,36276,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-49065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-featured-news","12":"tag-featurednews","13":"tag-headlines","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-latestnews","16":"tag-main-news","17":"tag-mainnews","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-northern-ireland","20":"tag-sinn-fein","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-ulster-defence-association","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}