Life was going on as usual in the Shankill Historical Society shop on Saturday afternoon. A woman in her 50s was asking to see a gold UVF ring she had spotted in the window. She proudly showed off an original 1912 UVF medallion around her neck. She hadn't even heard of the IRA ceasefire announcement.
"Nobody believes the IRA anyway. And why does Gerry Adams say he's going to ask the IRA - all he has to do is tell them."
The woman behind the counter, in a shop which stocks everything from pictures of Queen Elizabeth and Linfield shirts to paramilitary badges, summed up the feeling on the Shankill Road.
"It's going to take a lot of convincing before anyone believes the ceasefire. We were let down before." On the street the voice of a preacher warning of "a false peace" is booming through a loudspeaker outside a Presbyterian church.
A former loyalist prisoner, who served 17 years in jail, says he wants to believe the ceasefire will last.
"I don't believe it though. The IRA will stop at nothing short of a united Ireland. We don't believe Adams. You switch off the TV when he comes on, but we all have kids and we want to see peace for them." A woman beside him asks: "What have the IRA got in return?"
The vast majority of people on the street say they back the loyalist PUP or UDP parties. The DUP is dismissed. "Ian Paisley hasn't been here in years. The UDP and PUP are the ones with their feet on the ground," says one man.
Opinion, however, is bitterly divided on whether the unionist parties should talk to Sinn Fein. Memories of the 1993 Shankill bombing, in which 10 people died, are still raw.
"I pulled children out from under the rubble. They're nothing but scum. Gerry Adams carried the bomber's coffin. How could you talk to them?" asks a man drinking in the Royal Bar.
But his friend disagrees: "You can't keep your head in the sand." The other replies: "You're getting too weak."
Another friend chimes in: "I've four grandchildren. They'll still be fighting the IRA in 2040."
One young mother is the only one who is truly optimistic: "I'm happy. I just hope it will last," she says smiling. A shop-owner is also more upbeat. "The people here will be happy, because it would mean a chance of more work. You won't get tourists up here, but they'll be spending money in shops down town."
However, the general consensus is that it is a tactical move by the IRA. A group of teenagers, among them a 16-year-old shot in the arm at the Springfield Road peaceline during post-Drumcree rioting, echoes the views of their elders.
"The IRA will go back to bombing if they don't get what they want," says the youth with his arm still in a sling. "Tony Blair is on the side of the IRA," says another.
Billy Hutchinson of the PUP, who is among the Saturday afternoon shoppers, says his concern is that the IRA will not be able to keep everybody in line. "There'll always be mavericks. I've warned people around here to be on their guard."