Sandy Row is an Ulster Protestant working class enclave just south of Belfast city centre closely affiliated with the Orange Order whose 12 July parades are gaudy , elaborate events made notable by the traditional Orange Arches erected for the occasion . Prior to late 20th-century urban redevelopment beginning in the 1980s , rows of 19th-century terraced houses lined the streets and backstreets that branched off the main commercial thoroughfare . Loyalist paramilitaries have had an active presence there since the early days of the Troubles . By 1974 , the violent ethno-political conflict waged between the Protestant unionists and Catholic Irish nationalists was six years old and showed no sign of abating ; bombings , shootings , sectarian murders , intimidation , security alerts and military patrols were a daily feature of life in Belfast and the rest of Northern Ireland . There was no family in working-class areas of Belfast that remained unscathed by the Troubles or insusceptible to the effects of the disorder , tension and carnage . The Provisional Irish Republican Army 's bombing campaign had escalated sharply in 1972 and began to increasingly target Belfast city centre , often with lethal consequences such as on Bloody Friday on 21 July 1972 , when the Provisional IRA exploded 22 bombs across the city , killing nine people and injuring over 100 . This led to the erection of steel gates , manned by the British Army , thus effectively putting a security cordon or " ring of steel " around the city centre , which resulted in both Protestants and Catholics retreating further into segregated neighbourhoods , which rapidly fell under the sway of local paramilitary groups who exerted a strong influence in their respective districts . These groups also assumed the role of policing their communities and rooting out what they described as anti-social elements . In the February 1974 edition of '' Ulster Loyalist '' , a UDA publication , the UDA warned that it intended to take firm action against teenaged criminals and vandals in the Sandy Row and Village areas
Bloody Friday
Bloody Friday (1972)
Murder of Ann Ogilby