Sectarian violence has broken out again in North Belfast as Loyalists and Nationalists clashed on the peaceline in the Ardoyne. Police in riot gear tried to separate rival groups who were hurling missiles at each other and passing vehicles. Loyalists were accused of launching a pipe-bomb attack across the peaceline at the home of a Catholic family. The couple escaped unhurt, but they were treated for shock. A garden shed at the back of the house was damaged.
Gerry Kelly, Sinn Fein MLA, accused the loyalist Ulster Defence Association of carrying out the attack. "Loyalists have been involved in attacking school children and their parents in this area for the past number of days. This afternoon's bomb attack was an attempt to kill the people living in the house," he said. "Loyalists in North Belfast are clearly intent on heightening tensions in the area in the lead up to the Drumcree Orange Parade," he added. A series of clashes and the stoning of vehicles were reported by the RUC. A school bus had a window broken, but none of the pupils on board were injured.
Chief Superintendent Roger Maxwell of the RUC has appealed for community leaders on both sides to use all their powers to cool the hotheads and return the area to peace. Two members of the Northern Ireland Assembly, Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly and Billy Hutchinson, from the Loyalist Progressive Unionist Party, called for an end to the disturbances.
A Catholic primary school was forced to close when stones and bottles were hurled at parents and pupils. Ann Tanney, principal of Holy Cross Primary School, said that the board of governors were holding an emergency meeting tonight to discuss whether to re-open tomorrow. "It's very important that these children are not brought up in an atmosphere of hatred and fear," she said. Ms Tanney said that she understood parents who had vowed not to send their children back to the school. "Sectarianism and territory and also the whole atmosphere in North Belfast is very difficult at the moment, and we are a casualty of that," said Ms Tanney.
