Father Troy, who is the Chair of the Board of Governors, made a plea last night, and I think that, you know, in all of this mayhem and nonsense, you know, he's the only person that has actually spoke any sense. And what he asked for was people to use the other exit and the other entrance, rather than bring their children through that. Now what the parents decided to do today was exactly what republicans and nationalists complain about, and that is, thumb their nose at Prods. Now, you know, people either believe in civil rights or they don't, and these people, for no other reason, came down this road to prove things. And, you know, I spotted parents who have issued threats to people in this community and they were allowed to walk down. The RUC have refused to arrest these people, and I asked the question to Eoin O'Broin [Belfast City Councillor for Oldpark ward in north Belfast] last night, are these people parents or are they Provos? You know, if they are parents, why are they doing this?
You can't, though, vet people at the bottom of the road and say 'You're fit to pass up the road', surely.
I'm not asking people to do that, but what I am saying is that whenever people come up this road and they issue threats to people, this is what it's about. It's not about the children, children aren't sectarian. The children are growing up in homes and when they get a certain age, then they will probably take that sectarianism on from these people. But the difficulty we have and I think that, Julian, people need to recognise this, the Catholic community don't believe they're sectarian.
Can you understand the mind of any parent who would want to bring their child through this intense security cordon and have abuse hurled at them?
No, I don't. I don't see why you would put your child through that abuse. How could a child actually go into school and study after that happening? There's no learning in this for children, none whatsoever, because, you know, what you want the child to be going to school… you want the child going to school with a breakfast in its stomach, you want it to be able to sit down in a relaxed situation and start to learn at that age, you know. You don't teach children in this way, by bringing them through all of this. All you're doing is creating hatred in their hearts and I think that, you know, we need to get this sorted out quickly. But the parents aren't going to get it sorted out by using the RUC to actually take them up and down the road.
Has there been any contact, to your knowledge, between the two communities since yesterday?
Well, there hasn't been, and I have to say that while our people was in the community house on the Ardoyne Road last night, they were attacked. And the RUC refused to do anything about it and it led to riots in these streets. But, I mean, this is a problem we have had. The problem that we have had is that nationalists and republicans are doing all sorts of things, and the RUC are standing back and allowing this to happen, and they're not dealing with the situation. Now, I'm not suggesting that there's collusion in any way. What I am suggesting to you is that they're taking the easy option and the easy option is, 'Well, you know, we'll let them sort it out and then we'll go in and clean it up whenever they're tired'.
