No resolution over flashpoint school access

With just days to go before primary school children are due to return to their classes the dispute over access to the Holy Cross Girls’ Primary School in the Ardoyne area of Belfast has yet to be resolved.

Ongoing talks between residents and community leaders have failed to find a solution to the problem.

Brendan Mailey of the Right to Education Group, representing the interests of the school children and their parents, said that talks had broken down. He said that loyalists wanted to bring in other issues that were not related to the children’s right to access to the school. Mr Mailey said: “They were trying to use them as political hostages and political leverage, and we are not going into that.”

Community worker Mark Coulter speaking on behalf of the Concerned Residents of Upper Ardoyne said that these other issues had to be discussed to find a solution to the problem. He said that the single issue of access to the school was not the only problem in an area where he said Protestant people had been attacked and abused, and felt threatened in their homes.

However, Mr Coulter said that he remained hopeful that there would be some form of solution to the problem before the primary school reopened following the school holidays.

The entrance to the Holy Cross school is located near a troubled community interface in Ardoyne, which has seen rioting and strained community relations in the area.

In June clashes developed between nationalists and loyalists as parents and children from the Catholic primary school were involved in a prolonged standoff with residents from the mainly Protestant Upper Ardoyne.

Loyalist residents had claimed that there had been republican attacks in the area, while nationalist residents claimed that school children had been prevented form getting to school by loyalists. (SP)