If any taxi-drivers in Cuba are reading this, I've got some comforting news for them.

The Holy Cross protest seems to have ended permanently, and the school is gradually getting back to normal.

So what has this got to do with Cuban cabbies?

We felt like outcasts and we really didn't give a damn about world opinion - not one iota - because we were making a statement Loyalist resident

Well, this time last year, when I was in Havana covering the visit of one of Northern Ireland's globe-trotting politicians, questions about the Holy Cross dispute were asked everywhere I went.

The cabbies may not be very good drivers, and the roads are treacherous, but what made the taxi-rides bearable was the fact that many of the cabbies spoke terrific English.

Protest ended

As soon as I mentioned that I came from Belfast, the conversation was usually along the lines of: "Are they still stopping little children going to school there?"

It was proof of what most people in Northern Ireland had suspected already - that Belfast's battered reputation had just gone on another world tour.

Number of pupils wanting to come to Holy Cross has dropped

When I told one taxi-driver that the protest had ended, he asked: "What damage has been done to the children?"

Back then, I couldn't answer that question. No-one could. It was too soon.

One year later, I went back to north Belfast to try to find out.

I also wanted to try to answer another question - did the protesters now regret what they did?

It wasn't easy getting answers, as producer Linda Sills and I discovered during a marathon round of interviews with those touched by - or involved in - the dispute.

'Resembling normality'

First stop was Holy Cross School itself. It's easy to find. Surrounded by a large metal fence, it is delicately placed in the middle of the Protestant enclave, Glenbryn, on the Ardoyne Road.

In the past 12 months, the school has had a face-lift. The building is the same, but the faces inside are different - they're smiling again.

Teacher Betty Quinn has been surprised at how well the school has recovered.

Teacher Betty Quinn: Surprised at school's recovery

"There was a time last year when we felt we would never get back to anything resembling normality," she admits.

"But, amazingly, that's not happened. We are back to normal.

"Having said that, the actual long-term effects are not known, especially on some of the children. They're still having nightmares and some of them are still bed-wetting. "

Over 100 pupils needed counselling. That's more than half the school.

The number of pupils wanting to come to Holy Cross has dropped, by approximately a third.

The protest lasted for 12 weeks. It ended in November last year after local Protestant residents were promised social improvements and new security measures to protect them from attacks by neighbouring republicans.

Protestant women

That was the reason for the protest in the first place - to highlight ongoing violence. Others pointed out that the violence was being carried out by loyalists too.

The protesters had few friends, but it didn't seem to bother them.

They felt the parents should have taken their children through another entrance to the school, rather than subject them to the protest.

Residents say promise of greater security has not been delivered

On a cold Friday night before Christmas, at the local community centre, I spoke to a number of the Protestant women involved in the protest.

One said: "We felt like outcasts and we really didn't give a damn about world opinion - not one iota - because we were making a statement."

But are they prepared to apologise to the children who needed counselling as a result of their actions?

"Can they say sorry to me for what we went through?" she asked.

"Our children couldn't get to school either, which was across the road. We were hemmed in, we were beaten off the streets. All our children suffered."

No-one is prepared to give a guarantee that the protest will never be back. The residents say that the promise of greater security for the area has not been delivered.

Nonetheless, the Reverend Norman Hamilton, minister of Ballysillan Presbyterian Church in north Belfast, does not foresee a return to the streets.

"I see no possibility of an outbreak of the protest on the Ardoyne Road again - none whatsoever."

There's a recognition, on both sides of the divide in Ardoyne, that talking to each other - not fighting - is the answer.

But at the moment, emotions are still too raw for that dialogue to take place.

The road ahead remains dangerous, but a little more conversation will help.

Come to think of it, it's just like a taxi-ride in Cuba.