2002 Short Strand clashes

The violence started as loyalists were celebrating the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II on the streets around Newtownards Road.

On Friday 31 May 2002, Protestants were accused of draping unionist red-white-blue buntings on the rails of St Matthew's church in Short Strand.

[6] David Ervine, leader of the Progressive Unionist Party (PUP) said that Short Strand had become a "no-go area" for security forces.

Both Ervine and Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams held emergency talks with Northern Ireland secretary John Reid.

Saint Matthew's church was attacked with bottles and stones, before a stand-off of loyalists with security forces on Lower Newtownards Road in the afternoon.

By night time, shots were fired in Short Strand, narrowly missing a group of children and a 22-year-old woman inside her living room in Seaforde Street.

"[9] On Friday, masked loyalist men raided the Belfast Institute for Further and Higher Education, a few blocks from the scene of the clashes.

[11] On 8 June, Kennedy announced that the peace lines will be raised and high metal screens erected to prevent gunmen from firing over the walls, including between Cluan Place and Clandeboye Drive, the main flashpoint of the clashes.

However a previous wall extension on Madrid Street led to Short Strand residents claiming they were cut off from shops living in a "state of siege".