Larne school is latest target in wave of attacks

MORE than 1,000 pupils were sent home from school yesterday after the latest in a wave of attacks in the North.

British Army bomb experts were called in when a suspicious device was found taped to the front door of Larne High School in Co Antrim.

The school's pupils were told to stay away along with those from the Moyle primary and nursery schools, which share its grounds. The object was later declared to be a hoax.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack on the mainly Protestant school, but there have been sectarian incidents at more than a dozen schools in the past two weeks.

Among the targets has been the Holy Cross primary school in north Belfast, the scene two years ago of vicious and violent protests by loyalist residents in the Ardoyne area who objected to Roman Catholic schoolgirls walking along a road where Protestants lived.

Most of the recent attacks are thought to have been the work of loyalists, probably from the Ulster Defence Association, and have been concentrated in north Belfast and Co Antrim.

Last week, a Catholic girls' school in Larne was targeted.

It is not known who was responsible for the most recent incident. East Antrim MP Roy Beggs, a former deputy headmaster at Larne High School, said: "Moronic is the only way to describe whoever left this device.

"This spate of security alerts at the softest of targets, schools, over the past few weeks is shameful."

Mayor of Larne Bob McKee said: "This week it's the Protestant school, last week it was the Roman Catholic school and I am absolutely appalled at this situation."

Headmaster Stewart Pulley said: "It is the pupils on all sides who are suffering. They are having very important lessons interrupted and we are most unhappy at this."

Aat Poleglass, on the outskirts of west Belfast, an Irish language school was badly damaged in the second arson attack within a month.

One temporary classroom was destroyed at Naíscoil Thaoilinn and another badly damaged.

Fire officer Gabriel Ferguson said the entire school could quite easily have burnt down. "Only the prompt arrival of the fire brigade stopped the fire from spreading," he said.

The previous attack also deliberate caused damage totalling more than £5,000 and teachers are still assessing the cost.