Silent walk to Belfast school

BELFAST, Northern Ireland -- Catholic children made their way to a school in north Belfast without incident as the crisis entered its second week.

Up to 150 children, escorted by their parents and police, walked to the Holy Cross Catholic Girls Primary School on Monday in the flashpoint Ardoyne area through a silent loyalist protest.

The military presence was still evident as about 100 Protestant residents, some holding placards, stood in complete silence while the children walked through the Glenbryn estate to the school gates, in contrast to the violent scenes of last week.

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However, as the Catholic parents returned home to the neighbouring Catholic Ardoyne area, protesters blew whistles and sounded alarms and foghorns.

Some residents also screamed abuse at the parents walking through the corridor of armoured police Land Rovers.

Talks between Protestant residents and Northern Ireland Secretary Dr. John Reid have been delayed until Tuesday, when U.S. President George W Bush's special Northern Ireland envoy Richard Haass is due in Belfast.

Local parish priest Father Aidan Troy, who is also the chairman of the Holy Cross board of governors, told the Press Association the talks must urgently take place.

And he expressed concern that the school protest was already becoming dangerously normal: "It's like a club where we get to meet each other every day. That's an awful situation."

Last week, youngsters going to the Holy Cross school at the start of the new term ran the gauntlet of sectarian violence.

Soldiers and police protected the pupils and parents as Protestants hurled stones and bottles and on one occasion a blast 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 right to walk along the main road.

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