Republican News · Thursday 17 January 2002

Downing Street demo for Holy Cross

BY FERN LANE

A protest against the continuing loyalist attacks on the parents and children of Holy Cross School was held outside Downing Street in London on Monday 14 January by some of those who have been horrified by the images and stories coming out of north Belfast.

Around 30 protestors, bearing a 10-metre banner saying 'Stop loyalist abuse at Holy Cross', gathered outside Tony Blair's residence at the height of the evening rush hour. Those gathered also drew attention to loyalist attacks taking place on Catholic schools across Belfast and other areas and to the loyalist death threats made against Catholic school teachers and ancillary workers.

One of the organisers of the demonstration, Denis Grace, told An Phoblacht:

"We felt that it was time for people outside the north of Ireland to show their solidarity with the pupils, parents and teachers of Holy Cross and the other schools which have come under loyalist attack and to highlight the naked sectarian hatred which is at the root of such behaviour.

"We also wanted to counter the message coming through from most of the British media that there is some sort of sectarian tit-for-tat going on in Belfast, with Protestant schools supposedly coming under attack as much as Catholic schools. It's not true. We would condemn any sectarian act, but there is a world of difference between the occasional, spontaneous, individual act and the systematic, orchestrated campaign by loyalist paramilitaries which is being waged against nationalist schoolchildren and their parents."