[Colosis]

Hmmm....I wonder I this has anything to do with those nice loyal to Britain people moving into the area after a murderous feud and deciding that young catholic schoolgirls make great targets.

[Norn Iron]

No. Read the report.

[constitutiongirl]

I am on the Nationalist side of the Irish conflict, but you are wrong in your assumptions of the loyalists in the Ardoyne area. That area has, until very recently, been a Unionist stronghold. Only in the last 10 years or so, as many Unionists moved up and out, did more Nationalists move to the neighborhood. The pent up frustration at becoming minorities in their own neighborhood is what prompted the attack on the Catholic schoolgirls.

[slane]

The residents of the Glenbryn estate have been on the receiving end of almost nightly pipe bomb attacks on their homes for the better part of a year, as well as being harassed whilst attempting to use the shops nearest their homes, which are located in a nationalist area. Protestant schools in the area such as Wheatfield have also come under sectarian attack, although this has gotten no mention in the news. I say this not to excuse the carry-on at Holy Cross, which was inexcusable, but to point out that the situation is not nearly as cut and dried as the media makes it appear. People do not hurl abuse at schoolgirls simply because they are from different religious backgrounds. They will, apparently, do so if they believe that the families and neighbours of the schoolgirls have been petrol-bombing their homes and attacking them on the streets. It's typical of the tit-for-tat violence that has turned North Belfast into a war zone, with no end in sight.