the size of the company) were entitled to three to six votes unlike anywhere else in the United Kingdom. Many Unionists saw NICRA as an Irish republican Trojan horse, designed to destabilize Northern Ireland, and force unionists into a united Ireland. Several streets around the Falls Road were burnt out by armed 'B' Specials (Police Reserve) and loyalists in August 1969, with the murder of six Catholics on the first night marking the start of 'The Troubles. In response to the worsening situation, the British Government deployed the British Army on the Falls Road to protect the Catholics from further attacks. The troops were initially welcomed by all the Falls residents to protect them, but heavy-handed tactics by the mostly British-born members of the Army who did not know, care or understand the situation would estrange most Catholics and nationalists. In early July 1970, the road was the scene of what became known as the Falls Curfew. 3,000 British troops sealed off the streets around the Falls Road, home to about 10,000 people, setting off 1,600 canisters of CS gas. The British actions were opposed by the Official IRA (OIRA), who engaged them in a vicious gun battle. Over the course of the weekend, four Catholic civilians were killed by the British Army. Ninety rifles were recovered. This is widely regarded as the end of the British Army's "honeymoon" period with nationalists in Belfast. During the Troubles there were repeated sectarian attacks by loyalists on residents of the Falls Road. These attacks increased during the 1969 Northern Ireland riots when whole streets in the Falls Road area were destroyed by loyalists from the Shankill Road area. Loyalists paramilitaries killed many local residents. Temporary barricades were constructed to provide residents with some security. These developed into peace walls which today separate the Falls Road from the neighbouring Shankill Road. Although the troubles have now ceased, the peace walls still exist in this so-called Interface area. For the following three decades, the British Army maintained a substantial presence on the Falls Road, with a base on top of the Divis Tower. This was removed in August 2005 as part of the British government's normalisation programme, following the Provisional Irish Republican Army's statement that it was ending its armed activities. In the intervening period, the Falls Road area saw some of the worst violence of "the Troubles". The last British soldier to be