When street disturbances blew up at Twadell Avenue in north Belfast I was taken aback.  I have always known Twadell as a quiet area with an elderly population where nothing much happens.  Two weeks ago the place looked more or less the same as it has been for more than half a century.  I was struck by a spotless area and well-kept homes but when I looked closer I could see wire mesh across the windows.  One young man told me how stones had damaged his car and narrowly missed his young wife.  A concrete block smashed his front window despite the protective wiring and serious attacks have taken place on the area.  Watching a video I saw crowds from nationalist Ardoyne attacking the area while in another a man walked across at 3.00 am before hurredly retreating after dispensing his missile.

Children face constant difficulties and sustain injuries in getting to and from school.  The police try to prevent attempts to slow school buses down to provide slow-moving or static targets.  There doesn't seem to be much bitterness but people resent the fact that their story has not been fully told.  Men in their 70s have been called upon by police to help calm situations in the early hours.

Last week further incursions occurred and unusually this was during daylight hours.  A large crowd of 50 or more men and youths gathered across the road before launching a vicious attack with missiles.  They rushed in, retreated and advanced, apparently in a coordinated attack.

Eventually a single police vehicle drove into the centre of the mellée while violence continued even after another vehicle arrived to face the rioters. Two young parents with their young daughter experienced a vicious assault on their own home.  In the early stages the householder could be seen on video singlehandedly brandishing a stick in a futile attempt to defend his home. Stones whizzed past his head before he retreated, at which point a frenzied attack was launched directly upon his house.

For what seemed ages but actually took 'only' 12 minutes, a ferocious onslaught was launched right into the garden and against the home while the parents and their young child huddled together inside.  What sounded like large rocks thundered against the building while men strenously tried to smash the door down.  I caught a glimpse of loyalist youths retaliating as I sat with the family watching and listening to the constant pounding and experienced something like the primeval fear of a potentially fatal incursion.  It was reminiscent of Nazi attacks upon Jews in pre-war Germany.

Twadell is not an aggressive community.  It is extremely vulnerable and composed mainly of mature people with a sprinkling of young families.  The attacks tend to follow trouble further up the Ardoyne Road.  People remain determined to stay put but there is fear that the area could be turned into another Limestone Road where a community faces desolation.  In other parts people sleep with fire extinguishers beside their beds fearing petrol bomb attacks.  They lie awake at night listening for the sirens that herald renewed attacks.

From Ardoyne to Whitewell, from Tiger's Bay to the White City and from Glenbryn to Oldpark, loyalists are convinced that organised ethnic cleansing is taking place before their eyes.  They cannot understand why the media don't fully reflect their plight while the police seem unable to offer much assistance.  Mainline politicians seem far removed from this broken world and no one seems to care about the calamity that now could also threaten Twadell Avenue.  Individually people could move but there is a realisation that if one moves this could lead to a domino effect as vacated homes are ravaged one by one.

All the scattered loyalist communities of north Belfast feel under siege and in danger of extinction, as community workers struggle with what some feel could be a losing battle.  Their work is being in endangered because funding is drying up and yet some have worked effectively with members of the other community developing relationships and dampening down the fires of distrust and hatred.

People blame the IRA for instigating a concerted campaign to drive loyalists from their homes and eventually fill them with Sinn Fein voters.  Even members of public authorities are suspected of coniving with this perceived agenda on the grounds that a single identity communtiy would be easier to handle than a deeply fractured one.  North Belfast Protestant communities feel they are the sacrificial lambs.

Despite this and perhaps surprisingly, most loyalists remain conscious that decent people also suffer across the road and a degree of mutual respect has - almost miraculously - survived the turmoil and depression.