Republican News · Thursday 27 June 2002

Parents want end to Antrim school intimidation

Parents of pupils attending St Malachy's High School in Antrim Town have held a second public meeting in less than a month to deal with the ongoing campaign against children attending the school being carried out by the UDA's youth wing the Ulster Young Militants (UYM).

From September a UYM mob has targeted Catholic children going to and coming from St Malachy's and as a result up to ten families have withdrawn their children from the school.

During the campaign, Catholic pupils were threatened, beaten and prevented from going to nearby shops in the Steeple area at break times. When the RUC/PSNI were called in, they were more concerned about 'policing' the Malachy's pupils than dealing with the intimidation. Indeed, the RUC/PSNI have never removed the loyalists from the area.

One woman, Mrs Crawford, removed her son, Frank from the school in April 2002 because he received death threats from the UYM. Frank only returned to fulfil his examination timetable.

The latest meeting, held on 20 June in Rathenraw Community Centre, was attended by parents and St Malachy's head teacher Sean Quinn. The head had been criticised by parents for not attending a previous meeting in May. They felt the school authorities were not doing enough to resolve the matter.

One set of parents, who took their two daughters out of the school, complained that they had reported their concerns to the Education and Welfare Officers from the North East Education and Library Board, who replied that they had received no official reports from any of the school authorities.

Sinn Féin councillor Martin Meehan, who was the only political representative to attend the meeting, despite the fact that invitations had been sent to all political parties on Antrim Council, vowed that the party would do whatever it could to resolve the problem.

In a further development, graffiti naming the father of a St Malachy's pupil has appeared. The slogans saying 'Kill All Taigs' - and Watch your back Paddy Murray were written outside the school. The loyalists also wrote Remember Ciaran Cummings Ha, Ha in reference to the Catholic teenager shot dead by a loyalist gang last June.

The Cummings family painted over the slogans referring to Ciaran while the Department of the Environment painted over the other graffiti.