Tanya Smith

'Memorial Plaque'

... for two local men killed the same day in 1979.

It was a very violent time in the history of Northern Ireland, when the Belfast locals were being attacked by the British Loyalists and the Anti-Catholic Protestants. I spoke to two old grandmothers me stories of how the young men were caught alone on the streets of that very neighbourhood and either beaten to death or within an inch of their lives, and those that came to their rescue were also attacked with the intent to kill. How shots rang out at all hours and how the police meant to protect just stood by and did nothing as the young were slaughtered. It shocked me as we drove out of the neighbourhood that evening,

that the military/police were posted there even now to stop

the attacks on the locals.