The Holy Cross demonstrations

In 2001 there were a series of violent demonstrations against parents of some of the pupils of Holy Cross Girls’ Roman Catholic Primary School walking with their daughters to and from the school along through a Protestant area of the Ardoyne Road, Belfast, by so-called Loyalists. (For those unaware of the story there is a helpful potted history of events here.) As Lady Hale subsequently summed it up in the House of Lords [below]:

“The world looked on in consternation and amazement in September 2001 as day after day little girls being taken to school by their parents were subjected to a barrage of intimidating clamour, insults, abuse and offensive missiles from bystanders, some of them children themselves, as they walked up the street” [5]. Continue reading →