On 21 July, loyalists drove 8,000 "disloyal" co-workers from their jobs in the Belfast shipyards, all of them either Catholics or Protestant labour activists. Some were viciously attacked. This was partly in response to recent IRA actions and partly because of competition over jobs due to high unemployment. It was also fuelled by rhetoric from Unionist politicians. In his Twelfth of July speech, Edward Carson had called for loyalists to take matters into their own hands, and had linked republicanism with socialism and the Catholic Church. The expulsions sparked fierce sectarian rioting and shooting in Belfast, and British troops fired machine-guns to disperse rioters. Eleven Catholics and eight Protestants were killed and hundreds wounded. Catholic workers were soon driven out of all major Belfast factories. In response to the expulsions and attacks on Catholics, the Dáil approved a boycott of Belfast goods and banks. The 'Belfast Boycott' was enforced by the IRA, who halted trains and lorries from Belfast and destroyed their goods.