Appeals to take children out of the front line are ignored

As schoolchildren have been bombed and traumatised on their way to school amid scenes of rampant sectarian bigotry in North Belfast, appeals to take the children out of the frontline have fallen on deaf ears.

Following the attack, while politicians united in their disgust at the bomb attack, neither side appeared prepared to agree on whether the children should for the time being use a different entrance to the school or whether the loyalist protest should be temporarily called off.

Northern Ireland Secretary of State Dr John Reid - who condemned the attack as “barbaric” - is to cut short his holiday to return to the province as a result of the deteriorating security situation.

Following the bomb attack on Wednesday morning parents collecting their children from the school again used the Ardoyne Road entrance.

Earlier on Wednesday, Northern Ireland Security Minister Jane Kennedy had expressed her dismay at the attack. The Minister held a meeting with elected representatives from the area on Wednesday morning, but said that as a mother she was shocked by the willingness of adults to submit their children to sectarian abuse.

Prior to the bomb attack in a joint statement nationalist and unionist assembly ministers, the SDLP’s Séamus Mallon and Ulster Unionist Sir Reg Empey, appealed for everyone connected with the Holy Cross Primary School dispute to take a long hard look at what is happening and put the interests of children first.

The said: “We need to build a process to secure a long-term resolution and we are working to see how this could best be achieved.

“Children cannot be allowed to continue to suffer the unacceptable intimidation and abuse that we have witnessed over the past two days. This sectarian strife, which places children in the frontline, is creating an extraordinarily dangerous situation for all of us. This problem is not North Belfast’s problem: it is everyone’s problem. Society collectively has failed the children of our community in allowing this to happen and we must all reflect carefully on how we can help to stop this immediately.”

They said that the Northern Ireland Executive unanimously supported the efforts made at a local level to resolve this problem. (SP)