State papers: Fr Aidan Troy said no to offer of refuge after loyalist death threats over Holy Cross

Fr Aidan Troy in 2006. Five years earlier, Holy Cross primary School in Belfast was subjected to violent and abusive picket by a loyalist mob. File picture: Denis Minihane

A Catholic priest caught in the middle of a loyalist protest at a north Belfast school turned down an offer of accommodation from the Irish Government after receiving a death threat.

Father Aidan Troy received multiple loyalist death threats in January 2003 over his role in the pickets at Holy Cross school in Belfast.