The Wall True North

I mean, the walls have been up for so long now.

In my lifetime here, I have not seen the walls come down,

I have seen them increase.

So the walls are like a comfort blanket, I would imagine.

Kids growing up, they are looking at this big wall

and wondering what is over the other side.

Then when they see the barbed wire and spikes pointing out, they're

wondering if there must be something bad over there on the other side.

It could be a stone, it could be a petrol bomb, it could be a brick.

It could be a bottle. You just don't know.

You'd be sitting sometimes and you would be going,

if only you could do something.

But you can't do nothing, it just makes you so angry at times.

There is only like around 3,000 people who live in the Short Strand,

and we are surrounded by 90,000 Protestants.

It's always been where you go.

If you are a Protestant you can't go there,

if you're a Catholic you can't go there.

I don't think the Protestants and Roman Catholics were brought

together to say why this wall should be put up.

The wall's went up and there is no sign of it coming down.

This is some of the glass still left from the other night.

And there are golf balls. All you do is lift golf balls.

I mean, isn't that a lovely view, the wall(?)

Everybody else has got a lovely view and that's what we get.

There's more golf balls, more of them lying there.

I'll take you along to let you see the neighbour's house.

His house has been blocked up from when the trouble started in 2002.

10 years later and he's still blocked up, so it is.

There's more bottles that's been smashed.

Sometimes it's not worth your while clearing them

because they're just back again.

And there's that poor fellow's house that's been blocked from 2002.

I don't know how he lives like that.

He is a wee pensioner,

and I feel sorry for him having to live like that.

I have hardboard on my top windows

and I have no intention of taking it off because, if Celtic win

their match and Rangers doesn't win a match, there is another riot.

And they start throwing, you know... Or anything at all.

it's the least wee thing that sparks anything off.

That wall there, that wall was three metres lower than it was now.

There were three metres went on

to it plus that corrugated iron plus the wire on top

of the corrugated iron, but they can still shoot things over.

I find stuff in the garden regularly, you know,

bits of bean tins and pea tins, you know.

I have paint, I have two different colours of paint

over my plants in the garden and the back door and that's what you get.

They paint the door for you when they are rioting!

You might not like the colour, that is the only thing, you know.

It might not be put on very level, you know!

This is the back garden. As you can see, there are quite a lot of leaves.

I have netting and stuff up just to catch the odd bottle that comes over.

I used to have a dog

and there was the odd occasion a bottle used to come over,

and if it smashed on the ground I used to have to try and clear

up loads of wee small broken shards of glass before going to work.

So yeah, the wall is pretty high.

They still manage to get the odd thing over.

I suppose the things that come over most are probably whatever is

on special offer in the off-licence.

So it's Magners bottles or, you know, bottles of Bud,

they were quite popular for a while.

I suppose when the petrol bomb did come over the wall it was

quite hilarious cos I was sitting on the Xbox at the time.

Turns out it was a wee small piddly petrol bomb,

but when it first landed the flames looked quite high to me

so I obviously thought it was quite a big fire.

It turns out it wasn't actually that much,

but Cathy who lives in number 13, I think a petrol bomb

came and landed in her back garden and set her trampoline on fire.

If I hear any noise hitting the fence, I would come up and I would

look at them because you can see if there is anybody out there or no.

But there's times you come up to close the windows at night time,

just drawing the curtains,

and there are ones walking up and they see you and they call you

"orange Bs" and "I can see you" and all this and that.

I just have to close my window and just get on with it.

Because my kids are going to bed

and this is my son's room I'm in at the moment. He can't open his...

I have to come in the mornings when he is away to school

and open his curtains and windows because he is scared to open his curtains.

I had to take my kids from their bedrooms

and put them into the living room just for their own safety

because I didn't know what was hitting the windows.

That's not peace. It's not a shared future either.

A lot of people view it as an eyesore,

it doesn't really bother me that much.

As you can see, I don't really have any windows on this side

so I don't look out onto it that much.

A wee while ago I used to play, a good few years ago I used to

play a bit of basketball and I would still do that in my spare time.

So I was going to make a bit of a positive out of the wall,

it was my dad's idea to put a basketball net up

so I was maybe going to put one up either there or there.

Maybe there is a bit low but, you know,

at least the ball would never go over the wall!

It would have to bounce pretty freaking high!

On the right there, not the bathroom, the bedroom,

the bathroom is covered as well so it doesn't really make any difference.

You will see the window was broken there.

I keep the boards on it because I don't see any

point in taking them off or they are going to break all my windows.

As I say, I would have to get the glazier in to fix it.

This glass was put in on a Friday

and I think it was broken either Friday night or Saturday morning.

In this day and age, we are supposed to be very modern and one thing

and another, and very freethinking people.

But unfortunately, this is the type of business you get caught

up in when you are on a borderline.

REPORTER: The barricade building fever

spread to East Belfast last night, and East Belfast

is an area which up till now has had comparatively little trouble.

Over on the Protestant side which lies to the right here,

between Ravenhill Road and the Woodstock Road,

a number of barricades were put up in some of the Protestant streets.

This was apparently done as a protest,

I am told, against the barricades which are on the Roman Catholic

side down the Short Strand down here.

# In the summertime when the weather is high

# You can stretch right up and touch the sky

# When the weather's fine... #

I was born in 1966 in the Strand. We lived in 6 Bryson Street.

We were only two doors from the Newtonards Road.

In 1970, when I was four years old, we were burnt

out of our house during the famous Battle of St Matthew's,

27th of June 1970.

This is the Bryson Street peace line.

This was built in the early '80s.

This street here used to be houses from one end to the other.

A series of streets going along here, this used to be Comber Street

then Beechfield Street, Madrid Street.

And those streets I used to run along, you could have walked

up to Canmore Avenue up Madrid Street, up Beechfield Street.

Then there was a wee street here called Duke Street and

that used to lead on to Susan Street and then on to the Newtonards Road.

And I started photographing the peace lines in 1993, 20 years ago.

The building materials that they are using here,

that wall is about three feet thick.

It's 30 feet high. It was built to last...

..unfortunately.

I always quote the British Army general, Ian Freeland, who,

way back in September '69,

says that the peace lines will be a very temporary affair.

And that we will not have a Berlin Wall or

anything like that in this city.

But 40 years later, we've got 48 peace lines in Belfast alone.

All the trouble started in the interface

and then they built this wall.

I remember the first night it started.

They started shooting from the belfry of the chapel.

And seeing people die

and you could actually see the flash of the guns when the gun is fired.

I didn't know then that you could see a flash from a gun.

The next thing I knew, there were

people shot dead.

My parents' generation had far more interaction between people

of the Lower Newtonards Road and the Short Strand.

It got less and less after the Troubles

but even in my generation growing up, we still knew people from across...

A couple of my friends had girlfriends from the other

side by meeting them at the shop at the top of Mountpottinger Road.

But since the peace lines started to go up,

that interaction has just stopped so there is far less interaction

between the two communities, because of the peace lines.

Before that wall went up you were able to go into the Short Strand.

If you had friends there you were able to go in.

There was no bigotry then or anything said then.

My mum did go into the area

because she had friends in the Short Strand,

but they would have come and met her

and taken her into the Short Strand and brought her back out again

onto the Newtonards Road to make sure she was safe to go home.

And then this wall went up, this interface.

But it just put that divide between people.

I have published two books on peace line photography.

Round about 1993, the idea came that I wanted to photograph all

the peace lines in Belfast.

So I set out on a project that lasted about six months.

That's Cluan Place there. That's Clandeboye.

What I did was, I walked round to Cluan Place and I met this man here,

Mr Patterson I think he was called.

Told him what I was doing, that there was a hoist, a crane,

and would he come out into the garden and I would photograph him.

Peggy Quinn on the other side. There is the two communities.

You don't know which is which

because there are no symbols to show, no Tricolours or Union Jacks

or anything, so you don't really know which side is which.

It showed you that the houses were the same, working-class area,

working-class area.

That was taken in 1993. After the siege in 2002

that wall is now two, three times taller than what it was in '93.

I think the peace lines generally have had a negative effect

on community relations, but on the other side, people need to feel safe.

And then again, it is only certain times of the year that tensions rise.

Obviously during the marching season tensions rise.

It is actually a good wee place to live, the Peace Wall is there

but you forget about it most of the time. Before I moved here I didn't know about the trouble,

I knew it was at a Peace Wall, I didn't think it through. But to be honest,

the houses were just so nice,

inside and the layout and things that I chose it over - I was offered

a place down in Dee Street, it was a nice place but it was smaller.

These houses are a nice size,

they are replacing the roofs at the minute.

We are getting new roofs on that are bombproof and bulletproof

and all that, so hopefully if any missiles come over they should be fine.

It never scares me as such, because I know people on the other

side of the wall and I know now that they are nine-year-old kids.

But a lot of time a bottle will come and smash just outside the door

and that means that I have to go out and try and clean it up.

Cathy is quite good, she will come down and clean up the bottles and stuff.

The atmosphere around the bonfire is basically everyone celebrating the 11th July.

It's the atmosphere, it's a singsong, it's the karaoke is going on, it is being with friends.

It's being with the community

that enjoy celebrating their culture, without any hassle.

Come band season, we call it band season, you would like to

come home on Saturday after a band parade, friends come back,

have a drink and play your band music. For me

not being able to open my windows and play my band music

because it intimidates them because you're scared of someone

coming over and hitting or attacking the house, you don't know what would come over.

Can I have a magic wand? Who wants to hold the magic wand?

KIDS: Me! Me!

This boy here in the yellow top. Everybody welcome him up!

APPLAUSE

Stand up! And what is your name? Connor.

Connor, we need Connor to hold on tight to my magic wand.

Hold on tight. And don't let go. Now whenever Connor's got...

LAUGHTER

We just had a magic show for the kids of the area,

and for us it just means that everyone is safe, they are in

the one facility and if anything happens the kids will be safe.

If we get word that there is trouble at any of the interfaces

then the gates will be locked and we'll keep them in.

So there is nobody, none of our young people going up near the interfaces.

I am now getting my kids to understand that

if they hear anything hitting the fence they are straight in.

And I am bringing my kids in just so they don't get hit.

But when the kids are outside playing

and the kids from the other side of the wall hear them out playing

this is when the stones come over, because it echoes.

Because it is so close, it echoes, on dark nights, it echoes

and that is just trying to get a reaction from our kids.

At the end of the day, they're kids.

I was coming back from Albert Bridge Road,

the garage at Albert Bridge Road, and there was Connor.

Going over to Pitt Park and I said, "Where are you going?"

He said I want to go over and get on the amusements,

because they had a fun day at Pitt Park and amusements and whatever else.

And Connor was going over to get on.

That's the mentality, that is

how much our kids know about the 11th and 12th of July.

They were going over to join in on the funfair.

I've just took a wee dander out just to make sure none of the kids

have left the centre of the park and have,

come up under the interfaces but as you can see it is as quiet as anything.

There is not a child or a teenager about.

You know, they are not running near the interfaces,

they are not hoping or waiting on something kicking off.

People don't want that, sometimes people are really, really afraid.

And you can understand, not everybody is like myself,

where it doesn't bother me, it doesn't affect me.

But there are some of the kids enjoying 12th July with their

wee carry-outs and all.

Life in Pitt Park, I moved there in the '90s and I didn't see it

as moving near the interface, it was moving beside the chapel,

up the Short Strand, you are moving closer.

So when I had my kids I made them aware

that this was the Short Strand there and that is where the Fenians lived.

I have paramilitaries in the family,

I have a strong influence with some paramilitary organisations, and I was

a prisoner myself at one time. In 1983 I did time down in Armagh Jail.

So living in Pitt Park I had to make the kids aware,

they were aware that there were elements over here that would

hurt you that they could not go near, that is the way it was, just here.

We have to be very careful.

Throughout the years, and that's the way the kids...

We always had to be careful and made aware of what was happening.

I didn't move in here

and know what it would be like. Like Stepford Wives. I knew

it would be trouble down here, it was part and parcel of moving in.

Living here you are aware of a Rangers and Celtic match.

That could cause trouble either way.

So we living here as a family, we had to be aware of what is happening.

I am 30 years of age now and I have known no different

and have seen no different.

This has been every 11th and 12th and many 12ths in my lifetime.

It's been the same.

When they put the shield up across the road

and block it off it doesn't make any difference to me.

Last night, it is sort of like if you have to hide your identity

of who you are, if you're on Newtownard Road to go to Iceland or somewhere

you're making sure you have no holy medals on and that you have nothing to

point you out as being a Catholic from the Short Strand.

I don't feel as though I have to hide my identity,

I don't annoy anyone on the Protestant side so why should

anyone approach me or annoy me or anything belonging to me?

MARCHING MUSIC

From about six o'clock we had the shutters up

across the street, you couldn't get in or out of the area or

out of the district, it is like that on the four points

for the bands to pass. Why should we be affected

and hemmed into our own district?

If there was an emergency or someone needed

the Fire Brigade or ambulance they could not get in.

They can't get in near the red railings

because it is cordoned off and hemmed off.

You can hear in the background the police were there taking down the

barriers, and there's nobody about on this side of the wall at all.

It's 9:15 at night.

I understand that they want to celebrate their culture

and whatever else but what is the purpose

when they are going past the chapel at St Matthews? Every sectarian song

they can think of outside the chapel, there are UVF flags hanging.

Sometimes I do feel angry or gutted

because my own father was murdered by loyalist paramilitaries.

And sometimes I think, why rub it in people's faces?

We're supposed to be moving on. Have we got on any further?

Are we getting anywhere?

Let's give the women's group some information on what has happened.

We had a meeting last week with the church committee with Robert, in

reference to getting the church hall for activities for the younger kids.

We're in the Pitt Park Women's Group now that we formed last year and constituted.

We put one of the kids we were aware of through the Prince's Trust

and he done a week round a football club, which was

a fantastic thing done by the Prince's Trust. And he met a wee boy from Ardoyne.

And he came back and he got on the phone,

"I'm with a wee lad from Ardoyne. He's great, he's dead on."

He was shocked that this wee lad, that he got on well with him

and he was smashing and this wee lad... It is not about he's hitting him because he's Catholic,

He had never met a Catholic before.

Because they're the kids you need to target, that you need to work with.

They've never met a Catholic person in their puff,

apart from on Facebook. And the abuse just goes back and forward.

This same wee boy would have been throwing bricks and stones back again.

We have activities for the kids from five to 11 and 12, we keep them in for an hour

and a half or two hours. I made contacts at the Women's Centre

and they do a lot of activities up there too.

The set-up they have is unbelievable.

We are arranging another meeting with the Belfast men,

with the Walkway Centre to get more action. And the Short Strand Community centre.

The resident in the Short Strand, I know they have they same difficulties as us.

They've got problems with health and education. They worry about their kids.

The bricks and the golf balls, how do we stop that?

That's always happened, that is still happening to this day.

Moving here, how do you stop it?

Do you encourage it across the community and keep dialogue up?

You have to. You have to.

The Protestant community I don't have a bother with.

I do cross community, so I don't have hatred against them.

We started off at St Matthew's Primary School, a history group.

We were doing all different cultural things, what they do

and what we do and went to the Boyne and all different activities.

Then at the end of it we decided to write a book.

Out of the book we have done the play.

The input was from another primary school.

It was called The Other Side, it was about more or less what the

girls had wrote, the stories they wrote in the book about what they had done when they were younger,

their side and their life and our side and our life

and what we had done, and then we wrote the two of them.

Took different stories out of the book and made scenes out of them.

It was a very good experience. It was really enjoyable.

We had it on about five or six times it was showed.

One of my friends live, not directly on the other side,

but I would go through Bryson Street to go to their house,

they do live in the Short Strand. I do know people on the other side of the wall.

They're just in the same situation as myself, so I don't really have an opinion on Catholics and Protestants

because I have friends that would be both.

I try to stay pretty neutral, to be honest.

I just think that the world would be much more peaceful without religion.

Religion causes quite a lot of conflict that is pointless.

I think... I don't know. Some people, you know.

Because it's bother, it doesn't really need to be there, you know,

so I try to stay clear of it all.

5 and 3 - 53.

On its own - number 7.

5 and 2 - 52.

4-0. Check.

Blind 40. Check on 40.

CHATTERING

Four corners and the full house. Go over there...

Much, much...

CHATTERING

Well, this is our pensioners' lunch club

and it formed about 12 or 13 years ago

and the pensioners come round on a Tuesday afternoon

and get a three-course lunch for £3 and a game of bingo

and it's a wee time for them to socialise and

we would invite the women down from Woodstock Road

but also they invite our women up for, like, a film day.

So, now every now and again the women from Woodstock Road would

just come over on a Tuesday cos they know it's always on

and have their lunch.

# It's now or never

# My love won't wait... #

Today they're having a wee dance where this guy comes out and plays

the keyboard and they do old-time dancing and stuff.

My grandmother was one of the founder members of the lunch club

and she just passed away in March of this year, so

it's always been like, you know, personal for me to come

in and help out with the pensioners.

# It's now or never

# Come hold me tight

# Kiss me my darling

# Be mine tonight

# Tomorrow will be too late

# It's now or never... #

I remember Ellen from when I was young and she was my best friend.

We used to go in to the Strand and when my first husband died

I remember her coming and taking my daughter.

She took my daughter and she kept my daughter.

Done everything. There will never be any change between...

me and her. I don't...

..recognise her...

..as being a Roman Catholic.

She's my friend, not, to say...

..as they say "She's a taig," or whatever.

That doesn't come into it, she's my friend.

And she'll always be my friend.

# Tim Finnegan lived in walking street

# A gentleman, Irish, mighty odd

# He had a brogue both rich and sweet

# And to rise in the world he carried a hod

# Now Tim had sort of the tippler's way

# With a love of the liquor he was born

# And to help him on with his work each day

# He'd a "drop of the cray-thur" every morn

# Cho Whack fol the darn, O dance to your partners

# Whirl the floor, your trotters shake

# Wasn't it the truth I told you

# Lots of fun at Finnegan's wake. #

Since they put them old... that extra bit of corrugated iron

and wire and one thing and another...look at the mess...

you know, look at the mess it makes. The wall looks like nothing.

All that old dirt and muck and nobody seems to come to clean it.

See, originally, that wall wasn't supposed to be there.

Cluan Place...

See...

there was Nationalists living in Cluan Place before all this.

You know, before that what do you call it.

Before the er...

trouble started. There was people living in Cluan Place

and, as far as I know, there was talk about it

when they were building this estate...

bringing Cluan Place into... into this estate

but I don't know what happened, you know.

They...they built a wall round it and that was it!

Say good night.

HE LAUGHS

If you were claustrophobic you'd go crackers, you know.

You'd be punch stupid, you know, by the time you...

...it would probably kill you, you know.

You'd have a shorter life through the worry about it, you know what I mean.

And, er, but what can you do, you just, you just don't worry about it

and you don't sit in here that much, you know.

DISTANT CHURCH BELLS

CHILDREN SHOUTING

What's this?

Aye, right.

Yeah! It doesn't help. No-one wants to come out in this weather.

As you know, it's already been bad itself so...doesn't help.

But it will make a change cos it will keep people in.

All right, guys?

You coming in? Yes, I'm coming in.

I got laid off with the shipyard and I was out of work for a year

and then I seen this wee shop coming up - I said "I'll take it over,

"and give it a wee go" and...

been here two years now and everything's been going great.

A good variety of people will come in.

I get people from across the road

and Pitt Park and Short Strand.

I dunno...

You've got old and you've got young but I've noticed a lot

down Euston Street there would be a lot of disadvantaged

people down there.

And I'm sure it's probably the same over in the Short Strand

on the wall, there will be a lot of old people.

But they still get on, get on with their lives, really.

We all have our lives to get on with it,

just get on and make the best of it as we can.

Listen, have a nice day. You too.

The people round here have been through an awful lot.

Cos it does get disheartening when there's a house being

constantly attacked by golf balls. It is disheartening.

Knowing that's there good cross-community work taking place.

But you build up that good relationship

and it takes one thing...

to break all that down and...

there's a sense...in the whole area that...

and that feeling that something's happened

and there's a fear something's going to kick off.

People can feel it down here, people know,

they've lived here all too long...

to not know something's going to happen.

DOG BARKS

This used to be the kids' room but I had take the kids out of it cos

there was too much coming over that wall.

And it was really bad and the kids weren't getting to sleep at night.

So, I had to take them out of the back room and put them

into the front of the house.

That's been bricks.

So it has.

That's them throwing their bricks over and them

windows are triple-glazing.

So, it would be the...

the triple part of it that's been damaged.

The kitchen ones are the same.

There not that long ago the back door was done.

They have been more or less the same neighbours since I moved in.

There's been a few of us moved out and few of us came in but,

I mean, they get on well and the kids have grew up here

so they have. They were...they're here since they were babies.

So, it's really no difference to them ones if there's trouble or not

cos they're used to it. They have their friends and all, so,

no, I wouldn't move out. Been here too long to move out now.

There's been a lot of rioting down here, big rioting.

I never once, ever, ever said "Oh, it's time to go, time to move out."

And people's perception of people in the interface...

it's, you know, we're not bad people, we're not, erm...

love it when a riot breaks out and that's why we're living here

because...

"Oh, they get a riot down there and they love the excitement

"and that's why they're there and don't want to move out."

I don't want a riot down here, I don't want trouble.

But I don't intend... But I'm not going to blooming well move

cos of it.

DOG BARKS

I know when they moved into these houses

there was a lot of people spent a lot of money on them, you know,

getting all this modern stuff, you know, putting wooden floors in

and, you know, doing all this here. Well them people...

all them people moved.

You know what I mean cos they...they were spending...

and...they said...

"Oh, I'm not going to live... I'm not going to stick this every year."

You know, round about the 12th and all.

And I was in Donegal, Sligo...you know,

doing camping and staying in hostels and one thing and another.

And I just never let it annoy me, I just try to carry on with my normal life.

One night, maybe it wasn't too bad and then maybe the next night

it was really bad but you had that thought in your mind erm...

"Should I go?

"Or should I stay?"

I had my daughter then and you'd have said -

"Why should I stay here? I have the child here to rear.

"I could move out of here, I wouldn't have to stick all of this"

and whatever but...

at the end of the day...

..I didn't go.

Cos it was my home.

And I'm still here.

If I ever...

..leave the area it will be in a box.

TV ANNOUNCER: It started with a single bottle being thrown.

This woman police officer injured by glass.

Attacking them with metal barriers, golf balls and bottles.

The gates of the City Hall...

Nah.

..were forced open, some protestors getting in to the back car park.

The roads around the City Hall are now quiet but trouble has flared

in parts of East Belfast including reports of a church being attacked

on the Lower Newtonards Road.

SIREN WAILS

There's trouble going on tonight but I haven't been out to see

what is going on. All I can hear is the sirens and

you can hear that water cannon going but I'm just afraid,

really nervous for to go out.

You know, because you don't know what going to happen

between um...

..the police and the ones what's rioting, you don't

know what's going to happen,

you know, you could end up getting hurt.

There's... They're all on Facebook complaining now.

All the children are awake and they'll be awake all night, too.

A helicopter up.

Some girl's just said,

"Be vigilant, people.

"There's two cars just come in and drove around the roundabout

"and back out. It's maybe people being nosy but you never know.

"You don't want to see some innocent person getting hurt.

"Maybe nothing, but just in case."

See on Facebook...

you know when there's trouble at the top end or bottom end.

CHANTING

He wouldn't even go out the back tonight,

because I went out and I opened the gate

and a girl was passing and she said to me,

"There's trouble out there."

And there was, like, a bang, and he jumped and ran.

And he's been the house ever since.

If you even open the door to let him go out the back to go to the toilet,

he won't go, because of all the noise.

It frightens the animals and all, too.

You know, they mind, but...you have to live with it.

HELICOPTER WHIRRS

District's been very eerie all day,

but coming into the night, it gets eerier,

because you're just waiting on something happening.

I mean, the helicopter's up now,

which tells you there's something not right somewhere.

You know the feeling, that something's going to kick off.

The wall's no benefit to us. It doesn't do anything for us.

I don't know how many car windows I've replaced...windscreens,

when they're firing over.

Doesn't matter - look at the height of it,

it's still no benefit to us.

They're still able to get over and them cameras are useless.

WHIRRING CONTINUES

Before we know it, it's coming to Christmas

and we have the instance now, at the minute, with the flag,

the new flag that's been taken down and...

Strange enough, and it's not strange,

everybody's unhappy about it and they're very disappointed

in the vote that was taken.

And at the minute, people are saying...

It's Christmastime,

and instead of putting up mistletoe and holly and whatever,

they're putting up blooming Union Jacks.

It's not right. It shouldn't have happened.

People are angry - I'm angry.

People are out protesting to show their disgust.

But at the minute, there's elements coming out

and causing violence in the streets.

And it's not good.

It's just a crazy situation and it's just really bad timing.

Whoever came up with this idea of removing the flag over Christmastime

is absolutely ridiculous and ludicrous.

Get these lights on - right, here we go.

There you go - how's that, now?

In terms of it affecting people's daily lives,

I think you'd be lying if you said

it didn't affect your life day-to-day with them protesting.

Even as far as going to go into the city centre

to do your Christmas shopping, people are scared to go in.

One of the girls I was speaking to in here today,

she says she hasn't done her Christmas shopping yet,

she's so scared to go into town.

A young girl who works in one of the restaurants in Victoria Square

was coming home from work last Saturday

when they were protesting into the town

and she felt a bit intimidated,

so she went over and rapped the police jeep's window

and she asked them what was going on and that she felt scared.

They told her just to stand there until it was over.

Like, 17 years of age and she was being approached

by hundreds and hundreds of Protestants,

Union Jacks wrapped round them.

Who wouldn't be frightened?

Two DUPs under threat there, so...

There's always something every day, ain't there?

I think it's all to do with this flag situation, probably.

Don't know - I don't really bother too much about it, you know?

Not my cup of tea.

I'm just here to do a wee job and that's it, really.

You never hear good news, anything good happening.

You always hear the negative.

Heard something just the other day about a wee charity

where they take food round to people who don't have the money

or whatever reason.

If you hear about things like that, you'd be all chuffed, you know?

But as I say, you don't want this all negative,

you know...which is not good.

# All is calm

# All is bright

# Round yon virgin, mother and child

# Holy infant, so tender and mild

# Sleep in heavenly peace

# Silent night

# Holy night

# Shepherds quake at the sight

# Glories stream from heaven afar

# Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia!

# Christ the Saviour is born!

# Christ the Saviour is born. #

Beautiful job, beautiful job.

APPLAUSE

Tonight, we started with the cross-community carol singing

up at the Oasis Centre in Castlereagh Street.

It was mixture of young and old -

there were pensioners, there were kids from primary school,

there was youth kids, kids that go to our local youth club.

It just goes to show that last night,

the city came to a standstill, in the exact same street,

came to a standstill because of protesting over a flag,

and tonight, we were able to walk down Castlereagh Street

and into Short Strand and there wasn't anything, you know?

So there are people out there who do want peace

and who want to do cross-community work.

A big thank you to our Cross-Community Choir,

they're hoping to sing a few carols for us.

CHEERING

These folks are all local

and they're from the Short Strand Community Centre and Oasis Centre.

I keep saying it and keep saying it again,

no-one wants trouble down here.

I don't want it.

Our closest neighbours are the ones in the Short Strand,

they surely don't want it.

I don't want to see them attacked, I don't want to be attacked.

This doesn't help the situation.

I guess everybody's right to be angry and frustrated,

but there's a way of challenging that yourself

and getting it across some other way than violence.

It hasn't worked for 30-odd years, why would it work now?

I photographed the walls because they affect me,

they affect my life daily and I use photography

to try and work out in my head what the walls were all about.

Some see them as a friend, some see them as an enemy.

Kids play up against them, use them as a plaything.

Some people see them as foreboding.

They have conditioned life in the Short Strand,

for better or for worse.

And that's why I decided to study the peace walls

and take photographs of them,

to try and...even to try and work out in my own head

what they were about, what do they mean

and how they affect people's lives.

It's OK, people who don't live on the interface

asking for the walls to come down.

They usually come from places where there's no peace lines,

they don't know what it's like.

Majority of people in the Strand don't want them there,

but then again, if you're living right on the interface,

you need to feel safe.

Like, my sister, who lives in Bryson Street,

she doesn't want her kids out playing in the street

and half bricks coming over the walls.

Because she lives right beside the interface,

she wants it strengthened and made higher.

She wants her kids to play in the street and be safe, you know?

You can understand that.

These are rocks that have actually come over that fence up there

and have landed in my garden,

and I use it to build a wee rockery around my rose bush.

At the moment, they're talking about taking the walls down.

I don't want the wall down,

because it's the only protection I have.

It could be a stone, it could be a petrol bomb,

it could be a brick, it could be a bottle...

You just don't know.

We asked for the fence to be made higher,

and they can't do that for structural reasons -

the wall wouldn't hold it.

But...no, I think if that wall came down, I would have to move.

I wouldn't live here.

I mean, the walls have been up for so long now -

in my lifetime here, I have not seen the walls come down,

I have seen them increase.

So the walls are...like a comfort blanket,

I would imagine, for people,

especially the ones living right beside it.

And to have that come down drastically,

or just be removed without consultation,

then people would be threatened -

it would be like taking that comfort blanket away from them.

So, to me, it's a slow process,

because they're so used to having that wall there,

that security there,

cos they've lost a lot of faith - probably the two communities -

in the PSNI.

Can they rely on them to keep them secure?

This bricks and mortar seems to give them that security.

I think the people who decide to take the walls down,

they don't live in them places.

They don't see what's coming over the wall.

They're in their own houses -

they don't know what's happening in our area.

As I say, majority of the time, you don't know when it's starting.

I mean, that wall isn't that big when that extension comes off it.

So me, my own preference,

it would be no - keep the extension there.

I would probably like it to come down,

but I think a lot of the time,

the wall actually presents a challenge

to the young kids that throw stuff over,

that kind of thing.

Maybe if the wall wasn't there, it wouldn't be as fun,

just to throw stuff into somebody's back garden, there would be no...

Obviously, trying to get a fire extinguisher or a golf club,

or whatever they throw, it's a bit of a game, I'd imagine.

I think maybe if the wall wasn't there,

there wouldn't be any challenge or fun in it.

They'll do it by ease, if you know what I mean -

they'll try it in some areas

where they're sure they can put a gate on it.

They've gates up there, at the top of the Strand -

when you're coming over the Albert Bridge,

you can go through the gates, to go into Mountpottinger Road.

Things like that - that'll...

You know, they'll probably do things like that

before they'd completely knock the walls down.

I couldn't see them completely knocking the walls down.

I would like to see the wall come down

and all the trouble being ended for good.

To let the like of my family have a life -

you know, they can do what they want and go where they want,

and have friends from the Short Strand and whatever.

But...I don't think I'll see that in my lifetime.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd