Bombay

Tomorow marks the 39th anniversary of the burning of Bombay street in 1969, the event in Belfast history that is often pointed to as the starting point of the Troubles. The entire block was incinerated in the rioting, along with stretches of the adjacent streets.

I spoke to Patsy Canavan, who still lives on Bombay street where her childhood home was burned when she was 11 years old. She is kindhearted and soft spoken, and has a real love for the place she grew up, a real devotion. She wouldn't ever consider leaving - "they'll take me out in a box". For her the walls are an essential element of protection, the walls mean that she can go on living without fear of violence.

But she also remembers a time, before August 1969, that the family would cross freely through the Shankill Road neighborhoods, shopping, meeting friends, watching the Orange parades. But all that is from another time. Her voice is steady, but little wells of tears surge almost invisible through the reminiscences.

Tomorrow I will make a first trip onto he estates on the Shankill side of the wall. I am apprehensive, unsure.