07/09/2001
Pupils face silent protest on school run
Parents taking their children to the Holy Cross Girls Primary School faced a silent protest from loyalists as they took their children to school on Friday morning.
Following an agreement reached between clergymen in the Ardoyne area the silent protest was called as a mark of respect for the funeral of a Protestant teenager killed on Wednesday.
Loyalists had again called on the Catholic parents of the schoolchildren not to walk along the Ardoyne Road, but the parents and children who did take this route to the school observed a minute’s silence before taking their children past the Loyalist protestors who stood with the their backs turned. The party were again protected by a heavy security presence.
Shortly before 9:00am a local clergy of both denominations held a brief religious service in the school grounds and called on the people of the area to reflect on what they were doing.
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Dr John Reid who had returned to the province on Thursday cutting short his holiday met with the school’s Board of Governors. He said the reputation of the province was being “dragged through the mud” and that while everyone was claiming that they wanted to talk no-one had yet been talking in a “sustained fashion”.
On Friday morning Dr Reid said: “Even though we now have a better situation obviously than a situation where there was outright hostility with bombs and violence, it still isn’t satisfactory. We have to find a way to allow people to articulate their own grievances their own feelings about their own problems in a manner which doesn’t involve young children”.
Local politicians have expressed hopes that the school break will provide a breathing space for a series of urgent behind the scenes meetings to be held over the weekend to find a solution to the situation.
On Friday afternoon Belfast City Council members, who had been expected to discuss the situation in Ardoyne, suspended proceedings as a gesture of sympathy for the family of the teenager knocked down an killed on Tuesday in North Belfast. (SP)
Following an agreement reached between clergymen in the Ardoyne area the silent protest was called as a mark of respect for the funeral of a Protestant teenager killed on Wednesday.
Loyalists had again called on the Catholic parents of the schoolchildren not to walk along the Ardoyne Road, but the parents and children who did take this route to the school observed a minute’s silence before taking their children past the Loyalist protestors who stood with the their backs turned. The party were again protected by a heavy security presence.
Shortly before 9:00am a local clergy of both denominations held a brief religious service in the school grounds and called on the people of the area to reflect on what they were doing.
Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Dr John Reid who had returned to the province on Thursday cutting short his holiday met with the school’s Board of Governors. He said the reputation of the province was being “dragged through the mud” and that while everyone was claiming that they wanted to talk no-one had yet been talking in a “sustained fashion”.
On Friday morning Dr Reid said: “Even though we now have a better situation obviously than a situation where there was outright hostility with bombs and violence, it still isn’t satisfactory. We have to find a way to allow people to articulate their own grievances their own feelings about their own problems in a manner which doesn’t involve young children”.
Local politicians have expressed hopes that the school break will provide a breathing space for a series of urgent behind the scenes meetings to be held over the weekend to find a solution to the situation.
On Friday afternoon Belfast City Council members, who had been expected to discuss the situation in Ardoyne, suspended proceedings as a gesture of sympathy for the family of the teenager knocked down an killed on Tuesday in North Belfast. (SP)
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