NATIONALIST VIEW: The local Sinn Féin councillor, Mr Joe O'Donnell, was dusting himself down as we arrived to see the aftermath of the last few nights' fierce rioting in east Belfast.
"I have just been hit on the chest by a brick from across the \ wall and this is my only good suit." The scene in the tiny cul-de-sac off Clandeboye Drive, which borders the 10-foot-high peace wall, is the exact replica of that in loyalist Cluan Place - broken windows, damaged roofs, debris. The two streets are only yards apart, but it takes the best part of 10 minutes to get from one side of the wall to the other, so cut off are the two areas from each other.
Mr O'Donnell rejected allegations that the previous night's trouble had been started by nationalists. "People were attacked trying to put out a fire caused by a petrol-bomb and threw stuff back across the wall. It was wrong, they shouldn't have done it, but they were only trying to protect their houses."
According to nationalists, 150 properties have been damaged in the Short Strand area. "There has been gunfire, petrol-bombs, blast-bombs, high-powered fireworks with metal attached to them. We are completely hemmed in here. This 30-foot wall runs the whole length of this area, so we can't get out of here. Now tell me - why should we start throwing things across the wall when we know they are only going to come back at us and we have nowhere to go?"
Mr O'Donnell thought the reason behind the disturbances was the internal power struggle between the UDA and the UVF. "I would guess they [the UVF] are just flexing their muscle, because they have no natural interface in north Belfast, where the UDA have been doing all the business, and they just want to stage a show of strength. I don't even think they want to take over this area, they just want to do a lot of damage."
A local resident, Mr Seán McVeigh, agreed. "The people in Cluan Place are not responsible for this. It is the paramilitaries who come in and take over the area. Now, the residents can't tell them to get lost. I feel for them as much as I do for the people here. We wouldn't exactly be on each other's Christmas card lists, but we have always managed to sort out minor incidents between ourselves and the people in Cluan Place. They wouldn't muster 10 adults between them, they are just being used by the UVF, who are trying to destabilise the peace process."
Mr McVeigh rejected loyalist claims that the Provisional IRA was orchestrating the trouble. "Absolutely not. The people in the Short Strand are very politically mature, we will not allow ourselves to be used.
"I have always kept my head down, but over the last couple of days I have got to the end of my tether. I have four children, we have lived here for 10 years and I am spending most nights now with a hose in my hand, ready to put out any blaze from a petrol-bomb or whatever. What kind of a life is that?"