Belfast faces more school protests

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Loyalists are preparing to stage new school protests in north Belfast.

But organisers insisted their demonstration on Monday would be peaceful and they pledged to keep it silent as the Catholic children made their way to Holy Cross Primary School.

All sides hope there will be no repeat of the last week's events in Ardoyne Road, when terrified young girls ran the gauntlet of sectarian violence, including a blast bomb explosion.

VIDEO Elaine Burns talks with CNN's Matthew Chance about how the bombing outside a Belfast school impacts her two daughters (September 6) Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   EXTRA INFORMATION • In pictures: A gauntlet of hate   • Q & A: Belfast school violence

Ann Bill, a spokeswoman for Protestant residents in Ardoyne said further demonstrations are to be staged. But she told Reuters news agency: "We are asking that it is quiet for the children."

During the violent demonstrations last week British army units and police protected Catholic pupils and parents as Protestants hurled stones and bottles and on one occasion a bomb at the Catholics.

The Holy Cross Catholic Girls Primary School is in a Protestant area of the intensely divided Ardoyne area of north Belfast and has become a focal point of tensions in Northern Ireland.

Protestants say their homes are attacked by Catholics and that the Irish Republican Army is using the children to move into Protestant areas.

Catholics deny the accusations and argue the alternative route to school suggested by the Protestants is not suitable for parents who take younger children in push chairs on the school run and because it is their democratic right walk along the main road.

Earlier on Sunday church leaders from both sides of the sectarian divide appealed for calm ahead of planned further protests outside a Catholic girls school.

Bishop Patrick Walsh, spiritual leader of Belfast's Catholics, said: "We are facing a new week, we have new hope.

"I would hope and pray that on Monday morning those children and their parents...will be free to walk in whatever way they wish to their school and that all the (Protestant) residents who have these grievances will say 'there is now a process and we are going to use it'."

Protestant Archbishop Robin Eames, Primate of the (Anglican) Church of Ireland joined the call for calm, saying: "Little children must never be subjected to this sort of attention."

The Northern Ireland Assembly is to debate a motion about the dispute, tabled by Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly, on Monday.

The parish priest of Holy Cross and chairman of the school governors, Father Aidan Troy, claimed the days ahead provided a great opportunity for both communities.

He added: "We must not forget the urgency of getting the children back to school in peace and quiet.

"The children are nothing to do with it. This is an adult concern."