Ardoyne school row,Students were escorted from school gates this afternoon
Sir Ronnie Flanagan was speaking after another security operation in Ardoyne this afternoon to escort children and their parents home from the school. The road outside the school was the scene of violent confrontations over the past two days.
Two police officers were slightly injured during further clashes tonight between rival Loyalist and Nationalist mobs. About 200 people had gathered on the Ardoyne Road.
This morning, violence erupted again between security forces and Loyalists protesters. One officer suffered a broken collar bone after he caught the force of a pipebomb explosion.
The Loyalists were demonstrating for a second day against parents taking their children to the school through a Protestant estate. Bricks and bottles were thrown and at one stage garden fencing was ripped up and used to attack security forces.
Dozens of RUC and British Army Land Rovers were lined up along both sides of the Ardoyne Road and used as a protective corridor as up to 45 girls, all aged under eleven, and their parents walked the 300 metres to the school.
None of the children or parents was hurt. Some children were too frightened because of the violence and stayed away as trouble erupted in the neighbouring Protestant Glenbryn estate. The new clashes followed a night of rioting in several parts of North Belfast during which 21 RUC officers were injured.
The leader of the Church of Ireland, Archbishop Robin Eames, said that no society had the right to deny young children access to education. Dr Eames said that the scenes of violence at Ardoyne had further damaged Northern Ireland's image.
The Roman Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor, Patrick Walsh, said that the protest must stop. Bishop Walsh said that the school must be allowed to function properly and those people in positions of responsibility must be able to come together.
The North's security minister has said that the local communities at the centre of the conflict should resolve their differences by peaceful means. Jane Kennedy said that the police were there to make it absolutely clear that the pupils had a right to go to school.
The Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, has also condemned the violence. The Stormont Education Minister, Martin McGuinness of Sinn Féin, has warned that the dispute could only be resolved if the political representatives of the people protesting spoke out against the violence.
Last night, a warning was made to the parents by Loyalist paramilitaries to stay away from the area today. The Chairman of the Board of Governors, Father Aidan Troy, said that many parents did not agree with the request to use a different entrance.
Billy Hutchinson of the Progressive Unionist Party, an Assembly member for North Belfast, said that Nationalists were responsible for the violence yesterday. He said that they had intimidated Loyalists, without a response from the police.
