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CNN Live At Daybreak

Irish Protestants Feel Disillusioned With Peace Process

Aired January 14, 2002 - 05:11   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: More violence in Northern Ireland over the weekend. A Catholic postman was murdered. A Protestant extremist group claims responsibility and now the group warns it considers postal workers and teachers legitimate targets in the ongoing battle.

CNN's Matthew Chance has more from Belfast on grievances from the Protestant community.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Heavy clouds looming over North Belfast, a community bitter and divided. These roads are steeped in the traditions and the hatreds of Protestant Unionism. The new residents here in fierce competition for jobs and houses, are disillusioned with a peace process they believe gives too much to Catholic neighbors just a street away.

MARK COULTER, COMMUNITY LEADER: This is a small, declining Protestant community and this isn't a rumor and this isn't a perception, this is what the community here is told to their faces day and daily. The Nationalist community is expanding and they want to see people in this community move out of their houses so that the people in Argane (ph) can have the houses and the streets and this entire community here.

CHANCE: Tragically, children have been thrust into the dispute. Pupils of the Catholic Holy Cross Pry School, targeted for protests in the past, now face another week of tense, even dangerous school journeys through Protestant areas. Other schools have been attacked. Riots have also plagued the streets, with rival Protestant and Catholic mobs in pitched battles with the security forces. The possibility remains of more violence as tensions threaten to spiral.

Desperate times can mean desperate measures. On this Protestant estate, back yards and flower beds have been torn up as a new security fence is built to seal off these homes from the Catholic neighborhood next door. For long time residents such as Maurine Higgins, small pleasures like gardens are now just memories.

MAURINE HIGGINS, RESIDENT: On both sides of the debate you have young people who want to clob stones or throw stones. And we have had grids on our windows to try and protect them from breaking. So we're hoping when this fence is done that it will make us a wee bit more secure.

CHANCE (on camera): Barriers of stone, or, in this case, corrugated metal, have long separated the rival communities here. It's a sad fact that even after four years of a Northern Ireland peace process, these monuments to division are still being built in North Belfast. But the fact is, in this deprived area of the city, progress for one community -- like access to jobs, houses or schools -- is seen as a setback by the other. And until that changes, these walls may prove crucial in keeping the two sides apart.

Matthew Chance, CNN, North Belfast.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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