The civil rights campaign, and attacks on it by loyalists and police, culminated in the August 1969 riots. The 1969 Northern Ireland riots, Divis Street were the worst in Belfast since the 1930s. Catholic Irish nationalists clashed with the police and with loyalists, who invaded Catholic neighbourhoods and burned scores of homes and businesses. This led to the deployment of British troops and is seen by many as the beginning of the Troubles. Journalists Patrick Bishop and Eamonn Mallie said of the rioting in Belfast: "Both communities were in the grip of a mounting paranoia about the other's intentions. Catholics were convinced that they were about to become victims of a Protestant pogrom; Protestants that they were on the eve of an IRA insurrection". After the riots, Paisley is reported to have said:Catholic homes caught fire because they were loaded with petrol bombs; Catholic churches were attacked and burned because they were arsenals and priests handed out sub-machine guns to parishioners.