On the 30th March 2004 the residents of the Newtownards Road awoke as normal to get ready for work or to take their children to school. It had been a quiet night and the spring sunshine was accompanied by blue skies. The people from Pitt Park as usual made their way across the waste ground towards Richards the paper shop, many were bleary eyed, it was early after all.

As they rushed to get the papers before heading to work they noticed something was wrong with the McCurrie/Neill Memorial Garden, the unthinkable had occurred, it had been attacked. They slowly went into the garden to observe the damage, the beautiful wreaths left by family and friends had been destroyed, the flower beds had been strewn all over the place and paint thrown over the granite memorial headstone. It was a scene of utter devastation.

In a matter of moments thugs had destroyed months of hard work. It soon became clear that the attack was not carried out just for the sake of it but was in fact a naked act of sectarianism carried out by the people of Short Strand. The scum who desecrated the garden had trod in the paint that they had thrown on the headstone; their footmarks went all the way up Bryson Street. Two brave women followed the steps right up to a certain house in Short Strand.

This information was passed to the PSNI who of course did nothing. Later it was confirmed that not only did the sectarian attackers throw paint at the stone but they also attacked it with a sledgehammer leaving several marks on the headstone.

The Society immediately contacted the families who were yet again put through misery by those with sectarian hatred in their hearts from Short Strand. The press and our local politicians were contacted.

The East Belfast Historical and Cultural Society issued the following press release along with the press coverage and political responses;

In the early hours of Tuesday the 30th March an unprovoked attack was launched on the McCurrie/Neill Memorial Garden on the Newtownards Road, Belfast.

In June 1970 the Provisional IRA launched a sectarian attack from the Short Strand area on innocent Protestants killing Jimmy McCurrie and Bobby Neill as well as wounding 28 men, women and children. 34 years later republicans continue to inflict pain and misery on the relatives of all those innocent Protestants remembered in the McCurrie/Neill Memorial Garden.

The East Belfast Historical and Cultural Society condemn this attack and wish to express our sympathy to the families of Jimmy McCurrie and Bobby Neill. In addition we would like to thank the community from east Belfast for their support and forbearance since this unprovoked attack. The Society will restore the Memorial Garden to it’s former reverence.

The Chief Constable recently stated that it might be a hot summer, Joe O’Donnell sated that they would work hard for peace. Since the 28th March Cluan Place has been attacked and now the Memorial Garden. The Society wonders who is telling the truth and who is following whose agenda.

A memorial to two men murdered by the IRA on the Newtownards Road in east Belfast in 1970 has been vandalised.

Paint was poured onto it on Monday night and local people said footprints led in the direction of the mainly nationalist Short Strand area.

Community representatives said it was a deliberate provocation and called for local people not to retaliate, while Sinn Fein councillor Joe O'Donnell condemned it.

Ulster Unionist assembly member Sir Reg Empey said: "Those who carried out this insensitive attack daubed the memorial with green paint and destroyed floral tributes to those who were murdered by the IRA on June 27, 1970."

Community workers trying to keep the peace along a flashpoint area of east Belfast were today trying to find out who attacked a memorial to two IRA victims.

Just minutes after Ulster Unionist Assembly member Michael Copeland expressed fear about the potential for violence this summer in the area, Sinn Fein councillor Joe O`Donnell condemned the desecration of a memorial in the lower Newtownards Road.

Green paint was splattered over the memorial to two Protestant victims of the IRA, James McCurrie and Robert Neill. Both men were shot dead during disturbances in June 1970 near St Matthew`s Church on the edge of the nationalist enclave of Short Strand. Wreaths to the two men were also desecrated in the attack.

As police investigated the incident, Mr Copeland claimed footprints suggested the vandals came from the Short Strand. "This is a completely outrageous and sinister attack which has caused great distress to the victims families" the East Belfast MLA said. The memorial commemorated the deaths of two people at the hands of the IRA at a time when the Provisionals started to assert their supremacy over the Official IRA.

This event should not be seen in isolation and must be viewed as part of the unprovoked attacks in recent years on the unionist communities in Cluan Place and Rotterdam Close. It flies in the face of republican claims of victimhood and does not augur well for a peaceful summer.

Sinn Fein councillor Joe O'Donnell said: "If this memorial was attacked it should be condemned, no matter who was responsible. "Fortunately we have procedures in place with the interface group and community workers in the area who are currently trying to determine who was responsible."

"If it materialises that people from the Short Strand were responsible, I know the people living here would be very disappointed. Those who are behind this attack should realise it is highly sensitive and wrong."