UK News 04-09-2001 Review of the Year: Catholic Schoolchildren Get Lesson In Hate who: Red Hand Defenders what: Threaten parents of Catholic schoolchildren over disputed territory where: BELFAST when: Yesterday snippet: "Screamed at, spat at and pelted with milk bottles, the young girls of the Roman Catholic Holy Cross Primary School in Belfast began their new school year yesterday with a horrifying lesson in sectarian hatred," reports The Times. "The children stumbled through a barrage of missiles and fighting as 100 police and a contingent of Scots Guards carved a way for them," reports The Mirror. "Their homes in the Catholic Ardoyne are just 500 yards from the Catholic girls` primary school - but they must cross Protestant streets in this bitterly divided area." "This woman grabbed a Catholic woman and tried to beat her," says seven-year-old Eirinn Keenan in The Telegraph. "I was too close to her and I was scared. They were shouting all these names at me." "I was told I was going to get a bullet in the head tonight," says her mother. "There were women waiting at the gates to attack us and the hatred in their faces just numbed me." Later, loyalist paramilitary group the Red Hand Defenders warned parents to keep away from the disputed Ardoyne Road, says The Independent, "a threat that is being taken seriously, given that the organisation has carried out scores of pipe-bomb and shooting attacks." [... more]

What The Papers Say is delivered to thousands of readers every morning by web, WAP and email. Sign up today!