The Short Strand is a mainly Catholic and nationalist enclave in mainly Protestant and unionist East Belfast.
Bunting had his own strong-arm group which he dubbed the Loyal Citizens of Ulster, although in truth the LCU, which existed between 1968 and 1969, was little more than another name for the East Belfast arm of the Ulster Protestant Volunteers.
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He stood as an independent candidate for the East Belfast constituency in the 1997 UK general election, but got only 1.4% of the vote.
Neeson's election represented a notable geographic shift as his three predecessors (Alderdice, John Cushnahan and Oliver Napier) had all had political bases in the strip incorporating the East Belfast and North Down constituencies, whereas Neeson's political base was in County Antrim, to the north of Belfast.
On 24 February 2010 Ringland was adopted by the Ulster Unionist Party and Conservative Party as their joint candidate in East Belfast for the 2010 General Election.
In 2010, he won a contest to predict the winners of Northern Ireland's 18 Westminster constituencies, missing out on just one, Naomi Long, who surprisingly beat First Minister Peter Robinson in East Belfast.
The most prominent peace lines in the past few years separate: the nationalist Falls Road and unionist Shankill Road areas of West Belfast; the Catholic Short Strand from the Protestant Cluan Place areas of East Belfast; and the Protestant Fountain estate and Catholic Bishop Street area of Derry.
The hospital provides acute services to 250,000 people in the North Down, Ards and Castlereagh council areas, as well as east Belfast.
He was arrested by the PSNI for arson in the cherryvalley area of east Belfast but was released without charge.