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Loyalists stack bonfire pallets on building site for nursery school

Loyalists have begun collecting bonfire material at Lanark Way, on a site where building work has started on a new nursery school. Picture by Mal McCann
Loyalists have begun collecting bonfire material at Lanark Way, on a site where building work has started on a new nursery school. Picture by Mal McCann Loyalists have begun collecting bonfire material at Lanark Way, on a site where building work has started on a new nursery school. Picture by Mal McCann

LOYALISTS have already begun collecting material for the annual July bonfires - and are storing it on land where a new nursery school is in the process of being built.

Wooden pallets have already appeared on the land at the junction of the Lanark Way/Mayo Link site in west Belfast.

The site is due to become the new home of Edenderry Nursery School, which is expected to be completed in October.

Workmen have appeared on site this week to begin the first stages of the project.

The school is moving from its current premises in Upper Riga Street, close to the Shankill Road.

The bonfire at Lanark Way, which sits close to the nationalist Springfield Road, is traditionally one of the largest in the north, standing at more than 100 feet tall in recent years.

Controversy erupted in 2014 after a statue of the Virgin Mary was placed on the bonfire but was removed by a Shankill community worker and given to Fr Gary Donegan, rector of Holy Cross Church in Ardoyne.

Model maker Michael Doyle later repaired the statue after reading about it in The Irish News.

Flags in support of Enoch Powell and the British National Party have also appeared close to the bonfire site previously.

In 2013 organisers of the bonfire refused to sign up to a Belfast City council-run scheme aimed at restricting the amount of anti-social behaviour around the sites and reducing tyres and offensive flags and emblems being burnt.

A spokeswoman for Farrans, which is carrying out the construction work, said the bonfire would "not affect" the building of the new school.

The spokewoman said: "There is no issue at all here. It won't affect our work. We are working with the residents' association and they have a very good relationship with the project."

In a Facebook post this week, Edenderry Nursery School said it was "so excited" that work was finally getting underway on the new site.

It said: "It has been a very, very long wait with lots of disappointments along the way."

Education Minister John O'Dowd told the Assembly last month that the project will cost £1.2 million and provide facilities for 52 pupils on a site which "which will allow it to forge stronger cross-community links due to its location."