all its inhabitants killed. The subsequent destruction of large swathes of housing stock began a process of movement to the suburbs and depopulation which continues to the present. After the Second World War, many people from the New Lodge moved to new housing developments in suburban areas like Ballymurphy, New Barnsley, Rathcoole and Glengormley. In the 1950s, the army barracks was closed and the area was redeveloped with a mixture of low-rise and tower block buildings. Much of the population of the Sailortown area of Belfast's docklands moved here in the 1960s. The New Lodge, on the edge of the city centre, with a history of active Irish republicanism and surrounded by Loyalist areas saw much violence during The Troubles. The few remaining Protestants left the area in the early 1970s as it came under increasing attack by Loyalists. They were replaced by Catholics intimidated from Loyalist areas of Belfast. The McGurk's Bar bombing occurred on 4 December 1971 in North Queen Street. After initially being blamed on the Provisional Irish Republican Army, it was claimed by the Ulster Volunteer Force. As a stronghold of the Third Battalion of the Provisional IRA's Belfast Brigade, rioting and gun battles between the IRA and the British Army and loyalist paramilitaries were almost daily occurrences during the early 1970s and other periods of high political tension such as the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike, and occurred sporadically during the rest of that period. The area was vulnerable to attacks by Loyalist paramilitaries throughout The Troubles, particularly to drive-by shootings. The corner of the New Lodge Road and the Antrim Road was statistically the most dangerous spot to stand at in Northern Ireland. The last fatal IRA attack in the area before the ceasefire came in August 1992, when guardsman Damien Shackleton was killed by a sniper. Despite this daily life proceeded and the area benefitted from housing improvement and slum clearance during the 1980s, with new high standard public housing. However, despite this, the improvement in the general economic situation and the IRA and Loyalist ceasefires of 1994, depopulation continued apace as people left for the suburbs. In recent years, Northern Ireland has become an attractive destination for many immigrants from the developing world and Eastern Europe. The New Lodge has seen immigration from Poland, Latvia and Lithuania since the expansion of the European Union in 2004. Local politics The Dock Ward was one