Noisy protests continue outside school

There was another noisy protest by loyalists yesterday as Catholic parents and children walked Ardoyne Road to the Holy Cross…

There was another noisy protest by loyalists yesterday as Catholic parents and children walked Ardoyne Road to the Holy Cross school.

One schoolgirl became upset when a man pretended to shoot her with his finger as she passed. Amy Lindsey (10) said: "I'm afraid now." Her father later lodged a complaint with an RUC superintendent about the incident.

Father Gary Donegan, from the Holy Cross school, said the atmosphere was more tense following the arrest and appearance in court of six Protestant men and a juvenile in connection with public order offences on Ardoyne Road.

"Tensions are running very high as they were this morning," said Father Donegan. The Rev Norman Hamilton from a local Presbyterian church also spoke to the residents.

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Protesters waved flags and banners and one youth pushed a shopping trolley, with blaring horns attached, alongside the procession of over 200 children and parents. Others, lining the routes outside the security corridor, blew whistles and air horns.

Some residents jeered at the parents about the multimillion-pound investment programme announced for Glenbryn on Tuesday. "Do you want the lend of a million, we got millions," said one woman. Loyalist tunes blared out from the side door of a house on Hesketh Park.

Meanwhile, Mr Gerry Kelly, a Sinn Fein representative for north Belfast, yesterday warned people in the area to be vigilant after the Red Hand Defenders warned of pipe-bomb attacks on Catholic schools.

"This is a further attempt by the UDA, using the Red Hand Defenders cover name, to intimidate, injure or kill Catholic schoolchildren and their parents in north Belfast," he said.