Holy Cross School to reopen tomorrow

It has been announced that the Holy Cross Catholic girls primary school will reopen tomorrow.

It was shut today following trouble on Wednesday between loyalists and Catholic parents collecting their daughters from school, and after the extensive night of violence which followed, leaving some 40 police officers injured.

Fr Aiden Troy, the chairman of the school board of governors, said tonight the board had decided to reopen the school ‘‘in the interests of the staff and pupils’’.

He went on to address a meeting of parents at a neighbouring school and said it would be for them to decide whether to take their children to the school in the morning.

As senior politicians, churchmen, and community leaders on all sides appealed for calm, the Northern Ireland Education Minister Martin McGuinness said the latest trouble had brought people to the point of despair.

In the Ardoyne area, where just hours earlier republicans were involved in a sustained and orchestrated attack on police and troops, Mr McGuinness said: ‘‘Everybody concerned with the education of our children has to be appalled and disgusted by this unacceptable deterioration of the situation.’’

Both sides blamed each other and warned of a volatile situation which could erupt again at any time.

But the latest attacks, and the early closure of a nearby Protestant primary school because of claims that Catholic youths were surrounding the building, held out little hope of a breakthrough in any negotiations to try to clear the streets, according to political representatives.

Mr McGuinness added: ‘‘Yesterday was bad enough and I think there was some hope that common sense would prevail, that people would see the importance of real and honest dialogue to resolve the problems that existed.

‘‘But the later escalation of all of this had I think sent people almost to the point of despair.’’

Paramilitaries using mobile phones were accused of orchestrating the trouble and at least one senior member of the republican movement was heavily involved in attacks on troops.