BBC reporter:
The sparks have been flying on this estate for years. This is what it's like to move house on the peace line, a place where the workmen complete the removals. Several homes were cleared. Once there were 200 families in the Torrens Estate, but they've drifted away - due to what residents say has been a republican campaign of attack and intimidation. Resident 1 (woman):
Peace process? I wouldn't call it a peace process. Sure there's nothing, there's no peace at all. Sure they come up here and they do damage to people's houses, and there is nothing said. BBC reporter:
Broken windows have been a routine occurrence and there have been protests calling for greater police protection.
The area has been finished off by years of neglect and vandalism, but the locals say low-level violence set it on the road to ruin. Resident 2 (man):
Broken windows - time after time after time, until people get fed up and just up-sticks and left. And, as I say, two families, three families are away to the Shankill, one is away to Glengormley. BBC reporter:
Battered, boarded up and now abandoned. But this place is simply not the story of a troubled past, but also the tensions of the present - here on the Peaceline in North Belfast.
Resident: (woman crying at her door)
I don't want to go... BBC reporter:
Today it was Protestants leaving, but there has been upheaval in both communities and not always in front of the cameras. Eoin Ó'Broin, Sinn Fein Councillor North Belfast:
These families have chosen at this point to move out. Then that's their decision, but certainly there is no orchestrated campaign. In fact, if anything, the majority of interface violence over the last couple of years has been orchestrated by the Ulster Defence Association. BBC reporter:
Attempts at providing security here failed. Republicans intimidated contractors away leaving a half-finished peaceline. Nigel Dodds, DUP MP North Belfast:
Ten years on, and we hear a lot of talk about ten years on from the first IRA ceasefire. This is the reality of the peace process for these Protestant families in a small, vulnerable community in North Belfast. Republican aggression ... BBC reporter:
Exactly what will happen to these homes now is uncertain. But there is no demand for these properties from Protestant families. Julian O'Neill - BBC Newsline, North Belfast. (26/8/2004)
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