Holy Cross parents consider legal action

Parents of Catholic children caught up in the Holy Cross dispute in north Belfast may take legal action in a bid to end the protest.

Brendan Mailey of the Right to Education Committee says the matter is in the hands of solicitors.

He is hopeful a test case will be taken by the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.

Mr Mailey said: "The commission has asked us to send the name of a parent and child who have been through all of this for the past three months."

The move comes as two parents, Pat Monaghan and Gerard McCabe, travel to Westminster to meet a cross-party group of MPs.

Mr Mailey said the parents have had enough, adding: "We are fed up being herded up the road like sheep."

Since September, the parents and children have been forced to walk to school protected by a convoy of police and soldiers because of ongoing protests by residents of the upper Ardoyne area.

Following a meeting in a local community centre, they demanded that the road be opened to allow their children to go to school.

They are furious that senior police chiefs have brokered an agreement with the protesters to ease tensions in return for officers removing their riot gear.

Mr Mailey added: "The police are taking a gamble with our children's lives. They have trusted the loyalists who blast-bombed us and threw bottles and stones."