Republican News · Thursday 16 January 2002

Schools targeted by hoax bomb alerts

Hoax parcel bombs sent to Wheatfield and Currie primary schools in North Belfast on Friday 10 January have been condemned by Sinn Féin as "totally reprehensible".

The first hoax, consisting of a video with wires and a stencilled note saying "Catholic Reaction Force", was opened at Wheatfield school on Ardoyne Road at around 10am and an almost identical device at Currie school on the Limestone Road was not discovered until the schoolchildren had left for the day. Controlled explosions were carried out at the two schools.

Sinn Féin North Belfast councillor Margaret McClenaghan said any harassment against schools is deplorable and must end immediately.

"The Catholic Reaction Force is a pseudonym used by members of the UDA to raise sectarian tensions," she added. "It has been shown time and time again in the past that the CRF has been used by the UDA to heighten sectarian tensions, and must be rejected by all right thinking people".

Frank Bunting of the Irish National Teachers Organisation said North Belfast has suffered enough and this is the last thing that children and teachers need. "We would appeal for a period of calm so that schools can be sanctuaries once again," he said.

The hoax bomb alerts occurred just after the UDA, under the guise of the Red Hand Defenders, planted a bomb at the Holy Cross school.