By Frank McNamara


A deafening wall of noise met Catholic primary school pupils and their parents as the Holy Cross dispute entered its fourth day.

Loyalists turned up in greater numbers yesterday along the Ardoyne Road, but the terrifying blast of the day before was not repeated. In its place was a piercing wail of whistles and air-horns.

Protestant residents of the Glenbryn area made the noisy protest as they stood with their backs to the more than 100 Catholic parents who accompanied their children to school.

Amid the protesters who met those walking through the security corridor were a number of men, some with their faces covered, who instead faced the families as they passed.

Loyalists were kept at bay by the RUC and Royal Irish Rangers – soldiers whose Irish motto “Glan an Balach” means “Clear the Road”.

Kate Largan, who watched her grandchildren face the torment again, said several children had been made physically sick by the noise.

She insisted the protest has been orchestrated by hard-line loyalist elements which have moved into the Glenbryn area recently.

“The very fact that the eyes of the world are on us now is the reason the loyalists are no longer throwing stones at the children,” she said.

After the children made it safely through the protesters and into school, Elaine Birne – whose eldest daughter Leonna was caught up in the blast-bomb attack on Wednesday – said the atmosphere had not been as intimidating.

Using that to her advantage, she told her younger four-year-old daughter Niamh the incessant whistling “was a party” for her first day at school.

A further barrage of noise greeted the Catholic parents as they walked back through the midst of loyalist protesters and into the nationalist Ardoyne.

Father Aidan Troy, chairman of the Holy Cross board of governors, expressed relief there had been no trouble on the scale of yesterday’s blast-bomb attack.

“There was not of the same intensity as yesterday,” he said. “I hope that is a sign the situation can be resolved.

“Thank God we got there safely, and more importantly, the children got there safely.

“There was a lot of whistle-blowing but most of us can live with that.”

But, Fr Troy added, the situation remains far from acceptable and lacks “the goodwill” necessary for a lasting solution.

“It still is very unreal to be walking up to school this way,” he added.

Headteacher Anne Tanney met the children and, looking forward to a more settled day, said: “The children are in school with their teachers and we are keeping everything as normal as possible. We are trying to get the school back to something like normality.”

However, Mrs Tanney pointed out that although there was an alternative route to the school, she refused to call it a back entrance.

“There is not an entrance at the back. People have to come across a grass verge, a football pitch and through a small gate. People with prams cannot get through that way.

“We let the parents decide themselves which way they bring the children to school. It is the parents’ responsibility to decide that.”

Looking beyond the dispute to the long-term consequences for the children, she added: “We have to look carefully at how the children are being affected by this. “We have to try and help them get over it as best we can.”

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