Holy Cross chairman concerned ahead of new term

The chairman of the board of governors at the Holy Cross girls’ primary school in north Belfast has expressed concern ahead of the beginning of the new school term.

Fr Aidan Troy confirmed today that the number of new pupils due to attend the school has fallen by one-third following last year’s loyalist blockade.

Police and British soldiers had to escort the girls to school for several days last year as loyalist residents screamed abuse and threw missiles, including a blast bomb, at them.

Holy Cross school is situated in the loyalist Glenbryn area and the local residents did not want the pupils and their parents walking to school through their area, claiming their homes were being attacked.

Speaking today, Fr Troy said he believes tensions in the area are at their highest since he arrived in the parish 13 months ago.

He said: "“I think now that the guns have come out on to the streets, the temperature has been raised quite significantly.”

“I know there was a young man injured in a shooting in Glenbryn earlier in the year, but there is a feeling [among nationalists] now that there has been a concerted effort to intimidate or to make life very difficult for the people in the [nationalist] Alliance Avenue.”

Fr Troy said the long-term survival of the Holy Cross school depends on there being no violence this year.