Shankill Road community fears that the arms dumps will be reopened

The first warnings of a potential backlash from loyalist gunmen after the murder of two soldiers and a police constable were sounded yesterday as politicians from all sides continued to urge restraint to stop the violence spiralling further.

In the heartland of loyalist Belfast on the Shankill Road yesterday, there were no open calls for a fightback against dissident republicans, but fear it will come unless the police catch those responsible before they strike again.

"People are very, very angry and that's putting it mildly," said Councillor Hugh Smyth of the Progressive Unionist party, in his office on the Shankill Road. "The one thing I have admired in the loyalist paramilitaries is that they have been able to hold back on this. It will be an increasingly difficult task unless the security forces receive the powers and support from the British government that they need. Retaliation would be playing into the hands of the dissident republicans." The PUP grew out of the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force. Smyth has represented the Shankill for more than 30 years.

"I haven't heard anyone calling for the lifting of guns," he said. A youth waiting at a bus stop was less sure. "The [loyalist paramilitaries] will retaliate. It was the taigs [Catholics] who done it. Everyone knows who done it."

Such nakedly sectarian views are less common these days. Over the last decade, the loyalist community has moved on. Marble memorials commemorating murdered loyalist paramilitaries were gleaming in yesterday's sunshine on the Shankill Road, and murals celebrating the history of the UVF have been lovingly restored. Restraint and demands that the police receive full support have been the dominant response. But the worry is that any freelance act of revenge could spark a fresh cycle of inter-communal violence.

Unlike the IRA, most loyalist paramilitary groups did not hand over their weapons to the government's arms decommissioning body. Instead they promised to put them "beyond use". That tacit political deal has held through the years of the peace process. But the weapons are out there, buried beneath floor boards and in arms dumps.

"These killings have been carried out by evil people," said 77-year-old Jimmy Andrews, who has spent his life in the area. "It doesn't seem that we have laws to deal with people like this. If we had retaliation it would start a chain reaction."

Standing in the doorway of a betting shop, a middle-aged man said: "It's disgraceful but there's been warnings. [The dissidents] have made lots of attempts to kill the security forces.

"Republicans should give these people up. They know where they are. Sinn Féin knows who they are."

On a side street, a man in a woolly hat and earrings pleaded for restraint. "People just need to keep calm. No one wants to go back to the way it was. The odd thing is it's the young ones who are most tempted [to retaliate]. They hear stories about the Troubles. They think it was the good old days. It wasn't."

John McVicar, chairman of the Shankill Community Council, was hopeful that dissident violence would not destroy the gains of the peace process.

"Reaction to news of these killings ranges from anger to despair. There seems to be at least some unity of political purpose at Stormont. But no one seems to be asking probing questions of the Provisional movement. The question to ask of Gerry Adams is, 'Weren't these dissidents once part of you organisation?' Will Sinn Féin provide the police with these details and tell then when they left their organisation?"

In the One Stop Ulster Shop on Sandy Row, figurines of Orangemen and sashes are piled high next to pictures of King Billy at the Battle of the Boyne. "If there was an attack on the Protestant community, that would spark off retaliation," said the man behind the counter, standing beside a pile of St Patrick's Day carnival hats. "But no one wants it."