Loyalists call for talks over dispute

The loyalist protest is now in its sixth week

A loyalist residents group in north Belfast has called on nationalists to immediately begin talks to try to end the Holy Cross school dispute.

The dispute at the Catholic school in a mainly Protestant area of the city is in its sixth week.

Each day of the protest, the security forces have escorted the school children and their parents to Holy Cross Girls' Primary school near Ardoyne.

The Glenbryn residents said they would suspend their protest for the duration of the talks, if the parents and children used the alternative Crumlin Road route to the school while dialogue took place.

We are happy to call off our protest as long as it is reciprocated and they use the Crumlin Road for the duration of the talks

Stuart McCartney

The protests have been relatively peaceful following violent scenes at the school in the first week of September, but the residents have maintained daily whistle and placard protests.

They say they are protesting because they feel their community has been under a campaign of intimidation from the larger Catholic community of Ardoyne.

However, nationalist parents have said they will talk when the protest ends.

"I don't believe there was any justification for that blockade, that protest," said parents' spokesperson Brendan Mailey.

"There is certainly no moral justification for it now whatsoever because all the preconditions that they asked of us have been agreed to and we should sit down and talk right now."

But Stuart McCartney of the Upper Ardoyne Concerned Residents said the loyalist protest would only end if nationalists called off their own protest.

Brendan Mailey:"It is time to talk now"

"We will suspend our protest if they suspend their protest," he said.

"It is a protest because there was literally 14 people walking up the road there who were with children and then the crowd that came down was substantially larger than the crowd that went up.

"We are happy to call off our protest as long as it is reciprocated and they use the Crumlin Road for the duration of the talks."

On Sunday, a north Belfast Church of Ireland rector called on the people involved in the protests at Holy Cross school to "pause and ask where they are leading".

Reverend Stewart Heaney said he believed the problem would be solved.

Dialogue

Northern Ireland acting first minister and Ulster Unionist Sir Reg Empey and acting deputy first minister Seamus Mallon of the nationalist SDLP met north Belfast political representatives on 1 October to discuss how the Holy Cross dispute could be ended.

After their meeting the two ministers said they also wanted to help address the problems which have led to months of sectarian tensions and violence throughout north Belfast.

They have appointed a liaison officer to work on trying to start dialogue between the two communities.

They also said the Northern Ireland Executive was committed to improving conditions and services in north Belfast.

The Holy Cross dispute started in June. A series of attempts to start talks between the two groups over the summer broke up in mutual recrimination.