THE destruction inflicted on Castlereagh Road yesterday morning was worse than that done to neighbouring Newtownards Road 24 hours earlier.
A mechanical digger demolished the smouldering remains of a row of small shops destroyed the night before. The front of the King Richard pub opposite was charred but the pub was open, as was a small fruit and vegetable shop beside it.
The fruit shop owner was scathing about the authorities. The news of the march through Garvaghy Road was coming through. "They let all this happen first and then they let them through!"
She was frightened. "I'll not be out the door this evening. You couldn't take children out in this. It's not them that done it has to pay for it. They don't even work." She would not give her name to the press.
A few doors up another row of shops was being emptied by owners anticipating more trouble last night. Mr Bill Lockhart helped his wife to remove items from their fancy goods shop.
"What can you say? The Stevensons (chemists) there spent 40 years building up a business and in one night it's gone. Those young people are not interested in elderly people needing tablets or medicine. It's just drink talking. Basically, last night down here it was like Beirut."
But he knew where he laid the blame. "If the men had been allowed through Portadown this would never have occurred and we would not be talking about millions of pounds of destruction."
Mr Jim McCune and his wife, Diane, live further up the road with their two young daughters. They came to see the destruction. "They've gone too far," said Diane. "It's an excuse to start up the carry on again. You can't go out. You can't even go visiting relatives."
"It's an excuse for the hoods to come out and have a bit of fun," said Jim. "I came out about 1 a.m. last night and came down and I was told not to come near it. The wee guy who told me was only this high.
"The town was like a desert last night. It used to be bunged up, and all the restaurants and pubs were full. There were bus loads of people coming up from the South. This has set it back at least six months."
At the bottom of the road, Bethel Books and Music had had its windows broken in by a beer keg three nights ago and they were replaced by wood. Inside, it was business as usual.
The shop was visited by the local DUP representatives, Mr Peter Robinson and Mr Sammy Wilson.
"It would make you weep to see," said Mr Robinson. "A lot of young fellows tanked up on stolen beer and spirits wrecking the area. When it comes to wrecking a Bible shop!"
Mr Wilson was furious with the rioters. "What we have witnessed is not loyalty, but roguery of the worst kind. I have seen shops looted and then destroyed, tearing out what little is left of the commercial heart of the inner city areas of east Belfast.
"Even the IRA have not succeeded in doing what three nights of anarchy have achieved. I share the anger of the ordinary people of east Belfast who have lost their businesses, jobs and local shopping centres.
"Many of these shops were hanging on by their fingertips in the face of competition from Connswater. They are probably gone forever, putting declining communities into further decline."
But he was adamant that the blame lay with the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Annesley, for deciding to ban the Garvaghy Road parade. "That mad decision has caused the worst street disorder since the 1970s," he said, calling for his resignation.
Inside the shop, the attitude of the middle aged women working there was sad. "Why can't they talk to each other, speak the truth to each other?" asked one, adding wryly. "They don't ever burn the pubs."