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By Kieran McDaid
UP to 70 Land Rovers and hundreds of riot police were in place yesterday to ensure around 40 little girls got to school safely in north Belfast.
The Land Rovers lined both sides of the Ardoyne Road to allow Catholic parents, their children and priests to pass the flashpoint route to the school.
Riot police held crowds of Protestant protesters back at the junction with the loyalist Glenbryn Parade, while security forces escorted the children and the world’s media along the middle of the road between the ranks of parked vehicles.
Some loyalist residents shouted abuse and goaded the parents from their gardens, shouting: “Go on, you provo bastards”, but the children made it to the school relatively unscathed.
The mother of an 11-year-old girl called Hailey said the parents had to make it through to safeguard their children’s right to education.
“My daughter is doing her 11-plus this year and I really don’t want her to miss time,” she said.
“We have to get down this road now for the principle of the thing, otherwise it is only a matter of time before we are cut off completely.”
But some children and their parents were forced to turn back when a number of rocks were hurled at them.
One parent, who has vowed not to return her child to Holy Cross while the trouble continues, insisted the security operation should be stepped up.
“We got stoned from Hesketh – when my daughter started to squeal, we had to turn back,” she said.
Five-year-old pupil Jamie Leigh Slavin’s mother did not take her daughter through the security corridor yesterday after they were forced to turn back on Monday.
“I couldn’t take her back after what happened yesterday – she was absolutely terrified,” she said.
“We were called all kinds of things and stoned.
“I couldn’t go home and rest if I left her in the school. There is no telling how she would cope.”
Little Jamie said she really missed her school and did not know when she would be able to return.
Six-year-old twins, Shannon and Lauren Coleman, were taken to school through a rear entrance, accessed by walking along the Crumlin Road and through the grounds of a separate Catholic school.
Their mother said she was too nervous to take them through the security corridor after what happened on Monday.
“It was ridiculous and I wouldn’t take them back through it,” she said.
“It is a brilliant school and the girls would not be happy anywhere else. I just want my kids to be safe and to get them to school with the least hassle possible.”
It remains to be seen if she will have to continue to use that route.
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