04/09/2001
Tight security cordon around Holy Cross Primary
Some of the 60 Catholic children on their way to Holy Cross Girls Primary School on Tuesday morning were reduced to tears as Protestant protestors hurled abuse at the group of schoolchildren and parents protected by riot shields.
The parents were then escorted away as part of the heavy security operation to ensure that the schoolchildren could get to the school by passing along the Ardoyne Road close to the mainly Protestant Glenbryn area.
Sections of both sides of a 400 yard stretch of the road were lined with armoured police Landrovers as police in full riot gear adopted a new strategy to protect the children and parents attending the second day of the school term under the protection of security forces.
As the group of schoolchildren and their armoured minders passed by the loyalist Hesketh Park area they were met by a barrage of angry shouts from residents.
Although the school’s governors had urged parents to use an alternative entrance to the school from the Crumlin Road the majority of parents attending a meeting on Monday evening refused to do so, maintaining that they had the right to walk down the road to the school’s entrance.
Earlier several police officers were injured, one receiving a broken collarbone when he was hit by a pipe bomb, when loyalist youths clashed with security forces near Glenbryn Parade.
Progressive Unionist Party assembly member Billy Hutchinson again claimed that the security operation had been “heavy handed” against Protestants.
He said while everyone has sympathy for the children’s plight there was an alternative route to the school and claimed the scenes outside the school were as a result of “political points scoring” for Sinn Fein. (SP)
The parents were then escorted away as part of the heavy security operation to ensure that the schoolchildren could get to the school by passing along the Ardoyne Road close to the mainly Protestant Glenbryn area.
Sections of both sides of a 400 yard stretch of the road were lined with armoured police Landrovers as police in full riot gear adopted a new strategy to protect the children and parents attending the second day of the school term under the protection of security forces.
As the group of schoolchildren and their armoured minders passed by the loyalist Hesketh Park area they were met by a barrage of angry shouts from residents.
Although the school’s governors had urged parents to use an alternative entrance to the school from the Crumlin Road the majority of parents attending a meeting on Monday evening refused to do so, maintaining that they had the right to walk down the road to the school’s entrance.
Earlier several police officers were injured, one receiving a broken collarbone when he was hit by a pipe bomb, when loyalist youths clashed with security forces near Glenbryn Parade.
Progressive Unionist Party assembly member Billy Hutchinson again claimed that the security operation had been “heavy handed” against Protestants.
He said while everyone has sympathy for the children’s plight there was an alternative route to the school and claimed the scenes outside the school were as a result of “political points scoring” for Sinn Fein. (SP)
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