Pure sectarian hatet
The ugly nature of loyalism was exposed on Ardoyne Road in North
Belfast this week, when Catholic schoolchildren, some as young as
four, were attacked as they returned to school for the new term.
On Monday, shocked television audiences witnessed a middle-aged
man, just one of many furious loyalists, screaming ``Scum! Scum!
Scum!'' repeatedly at clearly terrified mothers and children.
On Wednesday 5 September, as the children were running the
gauntlet of hate along Ardoyne Road for the third day, a pipe
bomb was hurled at them. It exploded, injuring four RUC members.
Loyalists want to prevent pupils from the Holy Cross school to
walk along the Ardoyne Road, past the loyalist Glenbryn Estate,
and enter their school by its front gate. Their `protest' has
been nothing other than an organised sectarian assault on the
children and their parents.
On Monday morning 3 September, with tension in the area at its
highest level in weeks, loyalist mobs in Glenbryn bombarded them
with bricks and bottles.
The 400-yard walk along Ardoyne Road through a tunnel of
hate-filled sectarian and even sexual verbal abuse revealed to
the world the nature of loyalism - a racist ideology portraying
nationalists as subhuman.
Known UDA figures were among the crowd screaming abuse at the
children, while DUP councillor Nelson McCausland, who was in the
area, had no words of condemnation.
The area's MP, the DUP's Nigel Dodds could only call for a
``cooling off'' period and refused to condemn the verbal violence
against innocent children.
Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams said the blockade of the school
and the loyalist protest should end now. ``There can be no excuse
or justification for the sectarian abuse and violence directed at
the children and their parents as they try to make their way to
school,'' he said. ``Children have a right to education and a right
to travel to and from their school free from threat and
intimidation. The picket is being fuelled by elements of the DUP
and the violence is from the UDA and is based on pure sectarian
hatred. Sections of the media have sought to present this issue
as one of `each side as bad as the other'. This is not true.''