Republican News · Thursday 18 October 2001

[An Phoblacht]

Lucky escape in Ardoyne

The latest UDA attack on nationalists in North Belfast blew the back door of a house on Alliance Avenue off its hinges on Wednesday afternooon, 17 October. The attack happened at about 3pm, just as the children from Holy Cross school and their parents came through the Crown forces' barrier at the junction of Ardoyne Road and Alliance Avenue.

Speaking to An Phoblacht, Sinn FŽin councillor for the area, Margaret McClenaghan, accused the UDA of timing the attack to coincide with the children returning home from school.

"The bomb exploded as the children were coming through the British Army barrier," said McClenaghan, "and the house that was attacked is no more than 100 yards from the British Army barrier".

McClenaghan said that shrapnel was embedded in the walls and ceiling. "The woman who lives in the house was in the sitting room and escaped injury. If she had been in the kitchen there is no doubt she could have been killed or seriously injured," said the Sinn FŽin councillor.

Alliance Avenue is a nationalist road on the front line between the nationalist Ardoyne and loyalist Glenbryn estate and has been under constant attack this year. And as Glenbryn loyalists mounted their campaign against nationalist children going to Holy Cross school, so too the UDA campaign against nationalist homes on Alliance Avenue was intensified.

Residents now hope that the peace line that the new 'peace line' British security minister Jane Kennedy announced last week will afford them some protection against these UDA attacks. Experience, however, has shown that it won't.


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