Loyalist protest remains peaceful

This morning’s loyalist protest on the Ardoyne Road in north Belfast passed off peacefully, with the Glenbryn residents remaining silent as Catholic parents brought their daughters to primary school.

There was no repeat of last week’s scenes, when the loyalists shouted sectarian abuse and threw stones, bottles and even a blast bomb at the four to 11-year-old children.

Although they stayed silent while the children passed this morning, the protesters did blow whistles at the parents as they returned from the school after dropping their children off.

Meanwhile, Ulster Unionist peer John Taylor said the British Government failed to do anything to avert the crisis when it first emerged last June and accused Northern Secretary John Reid of "sitting on his hands for the entire summer".

He also accused journalists of poor reporting and of failing to address the reasons why the loyalists were abusing the children.

Mr Taylor also criticised the parents of the Catholic children for "using their daughters as pawns in a political dispute".

Sinn Fein’s Gerry Kelly reacted angrily to Mr Taylor’s comments.

He said the former UUP MP was trying to vilify the victims of the loyalist anger.

Mr Kelly also slammed unionists for misrepresenting the situation in Ardoyne and Glenbryn.

“There are all sorts of myths going on here,” he said. “John Taylor is talking about a small loyalist enclave. This is not a loyalist enclave. It is an area on the edge of Ardoyne, but it is also attached to a very massive loyalist area.”

The Sinn Fein MLA also said that unionist claims of constant attacks on Glenbryn residents are exaggerated and said figures from the Northern Ireland Office show that the vast majority of attacks in the Ardoyne area have actually been against Catholics.