Dispute police challenge dismissed

The protest at the school lasted for three months

A dispute at a north Belfast primary school three years ago was one of the most shameful and disgraceful episodes in recent history, the Lord Chief Justice has said.

Sir Brian Kerr made the comment as he dismissed an attempt by the mother of a child at Holy Cross Girls' school to legally challenge police handling of the dispute.

The three-month protest in 2001 by loyalist residents at the Ardoyne interface saw pupils of Holy Cross being escorted to and from the school by the security forces on a daily basis.

The dispute centred on alleged attacks on Protestant Glenbryn homes by the larger nationalist community in Ardoyne.

It ended after local Protestant residents were promised social improvements and new security measures.

In court on Wednesday, the mother was referred to as 'E' during the hearing because she fears her life will be in danger if her name is revealed.

Public disorder

Sir Brian, who heard the application last September, said the sense of outrage the events provoked could not be allowed to substitute for a dispassionate and scrupulous examination of the legality of the policing strategy and the decisions taken as to how the protest should be handled.

"That appraisal must take place within a well-defined legal framework," he said.

"Having conducted that assessment, I have concluded that the policing judgements made have withstood the challenge that has been presented to them.

"The application for judicial review must be dismissed."

The headmaster of Holy Cross Boys' School had told the court that the attacks and intimidation "were more akin to the treatment of American blacks in Alabama in the 1960s".

The Lord Chief Justice said "E" had alleged that police measures to counteract the activities of the protesters were either non-existent or totally ineffective.

But the district police commander, Chief Superintendent Maxwell, had stated they tried to do everything possible to facilitate the safe passage of children and parents to school.

There were constraints on policing action including the risk that children would be exposed to even greater trauma or injury.

Sir Brian said: "Throughout, the safety of the children remained the paramount consideration of the police.

"More aggressive police tactics would undoubtedly have led, Mr Maxwell believed, to even more serious public disorder and the probable involvement of loyalist paramilitary organisations.

"The lives of the parents and children would have been imperilled if this had happened."