Correct, a lot of it was playing to the cameras and putting their children through it just to appear victims. Both sides involved should hang their heads in shame

pplocal (Tyrone) - Posts: 5878 - 06/09/2011 13:53:00    1028279

I never fully understood it. Probably distracted by events in the US at the time.

Catholic kids trying to walk to school through a protestant area and there was a problem with it?! Was it that simple? What were/are the arguments of these brave protestors against children??

hurlinspuds (Cork) - Posts: 1494 - 06/09/2011 13:55:46    1028281

The only good from it all was loyalism shows its TRUE ugly face. The parents were right not to bend and show their children it was right to take a stand and not bow to loyalism, not people had done for decades and got nowhere.

Padraig_Dub (Dublin) - Posts: 100 - 06/09/2011 14:12:28    1028311

paddyogall i think the more sick people were the people from the protestant estate who shouted the most disgusting abuse at young children who probably didnt know what the whole thing was about...but then again you have absolutely no concept of what things are like in the north

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b014j632/At_the_Crossroads/

cboyle92 (Down) - Posts: 184 - 06/09/2011 15:49:09    1028456

paddy and pp i am shocked and appalled by those statements. Why should a child be denied the opportunity to go to school? Why should they have to be tormented by adult men. For the sake of your own moral conscience i hope that both of those posts were an attempt at wumming if not though gentlemen i say shame on you.

gotmilk (Fermanagh) - Posts: 4971 - 06/09/2011 15:52:16    1028459

Who said anything about not going to School. Plenty went to that school without having to walk down that road. Indeed many that did seem to come from a lower class from the interviews I have seen on UTV etc.

paddyogall (Mayo) - Posts: 5110 - 06/09/2011 16:51:44    1028490

If I knew my child would be spat upon and abused walking to school I wouldn't let him go or make them go a different route. Of course it's disgusting that they're subjected to that but making them face that every day is equally reprehensible. Still they got to show themselves as victims eh

pplocal (Tyrone) - Posts: 5878 - 06/09/2011 16:54:49    1028493

pplocal
County: Tyrone
Posts: 3801

1028493 If I knew my child would be spat upon and abused walking to school I wouldn't let him go or make them go a different route. Of course it's disgusting that they're subjected to that but making them face that every day is equally reprehensible. Still they got to show themselves as victims eh

That's the reason they were spat on and terrorised. To stop them going to school by that route. It takes a particularly despicable type of individual to subject a child to that level of vitriolic hatred. You are far too blase in your references to it pp.

Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 6181 - 06/09/2011 16:59:44    1028499

pp why should a child be made take a different route to school? Why should they not be allowed to walk along a main road to school? please do enlighten me

gotmilk (Fermanagh) - Posts: 4971 - 06/09/2011 17:22:29    1028515

Each side is as bad as the other - that old cliche. This statement would have some weight if just one example of a similiar 'protest' organised by nationalists could be put forward in support of it. In the last 10-15 years, we have witnessed;

1) Harryville Chapel 'protests' - Hundreds of unionist/loyalist 'protesters' picketed, intimidated and abused Catholic mass goers at Our Ladies Chapel Ballymena every Saturday night for months on end, necessitating over 50 police land rovers to guarantee mass goer safety.

2) Carnmoney Cemetry 'protests' - Annual graveyard mass at the cemetry was picketed by another mob with loud hailers and fireworks in order to prevent the Rosary being said by the local Priest. Catholic gravestones were for years subject to attack.

3) Loyalist Orders constantly wanting to march through Catholic residential areas where they are not wanted, how many nationalist parades are taking place in Unionist/loyalist areas ?

Finally there's Holy Cross.

Perhaps the Catholics of Ballymena should not have went to Mass on Saturday nights. Perhaps the Catholics in Carnmoney should have said the Rosary in doors and went home without blessing the graves. Perhaps nationalists should allow loyalist parades through their streets. Perhaps Holy Cross students should have entered their school via the back door.

Or

Perhaps we can address the real problem here.

artisan (Down) - Posts: 1794 - 06/09/2011 18:30:25    1028556

Indeed Artisan or we might like Paddy and PP would wish and all go back to how things were in 1968. I am quite sure any Parent who took their children through there did not do so with any delight in the matter. It just is that sometimes you must make a stand for what is right. Any Christian can easily see where the face of Christ was in this matter. In truth jesus did not have to go to jerusalem but he did.

derryman (Derry) - Posts: 3246 - 06/09/2011 20:44:25    1028692

the parents who marched there children to school and subjected there kids to that level of abuse did so because they were die hard republicans, no half decent parent would put there children into a position where they could have been seriously injured or even killed. those women/mothers can only be described as savages to do such a thing.

Gammy_Knee (USA) - Posts: 1482 - 06/09/2011 21:58:50    1028807

ps i forgot there was a war going on at the time and that therefore would justify their actions.

Gammy_Knee (USA) - Posts: 1482 - 06/09/2011 22:00:32    1028811

I am not trying to anger anyone but I have to say that normal parents would not walk their
small children into danger.
They would, in fact, do their absolute upmost to keep their children away from danger.

RAM85 (Westmeath) - Posts: 978 - 07/09/2011 09:00:55    1028832

pplocal
County: Tyrone
Posts: 3804

1028493
If I knew my child would be spat upon and abused walking to school I wouldn't let him go or make them go a different route. Of course it's disgusting that they're subjected to that but making them face that every day is equally reprehensible. Still they got to show themselves as victims eh.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I take it from that comment that you also think that Rosa Parks should have given up her seat? I am not saying the parents made the best choice by walking the route,but they should have the right to walk it free from sectarian hatred and abuse.It was obviously a very trying time for those parents and their children and I'm sure they made what they thought were the right decisions at the time.I hope all the families involved are doing better today.As Artisan and Derryman have pointed out this is nothing new from the Loyalist side,they have been up to these kinds of ugly intimidatory antics for years.
Many times in my life I have tried to understand the Loyalist/Unionist mindset and point of view and have at times felt I had gained an insight or had learned to see things from their point of view.This is one time were that did not happen.I could not imagine myself or anybody I had ever known in my entire life from my community,being participants in a hate filled and often violent protest against little Protestant school girls.I guess it takes a special kind of man to be able to do something so 'brave'.

seanie_boy (Tyrone) - Posts: 4235 - 07/09/2011 09:42:41    1028857

seanie_boy
County: Tyrone

I could not imagine myself or anybody I had ever known in my entire life from my community,being participants in a hate filled and often violent protest against little Protestant school girls.I guess it takes a special kind of man to be able to do something so 'brave'.


it wasn't just men, women/mothers were very much to the fore, as was their young offspring. savages on both sides, both communities driven on by there complete and utter hatred for each other. each trying to get one over the other. if wasn't a holy cross it would be something else. tit for tat sectarianism in working class communities from people who had nothing better to be at.

Gammy_Knee (USA) - Posts: 1482 - 07/09/2011 10:59:22    1028927

Seanie-boy, someone from the other side of the fence could remind you about the "brave" people that
blew up the shopping centre in Manchester. Or were they freedom fighters?

This "victim tennis" is a waste of time.

RAM85 (Westmeath) - Posts: 978 - 07/09/2011 11:52:44    1028968

Using human shields is illegal and wrong, especially more so when these shields are children. I am of the view that these parents purposely put their children through unnecessary abuse in order to make a political point and try to score a propaganda victory in the eyes of the World. This is even more reprehensible than the Unionists who were making the protest

pplocal (Tyrone) - Posts: 5878 - 07/09/2011 12:28:24    1029010

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_shield

Iraq, Afgahanistan, Palestine, Lybia and Northern Ireland were all places where human shields were used. Often the leaders of these movements cared little for the ramications of the people who were human shields. In this case pemroy is right, the Republican movement used 7 year old girls with little care about there well being.

paddyogall (Mayo) - Posts: 5110 - 07/09/2011 12:50:52    1029036

If they hadnt walked down the road they wouldnt have placed themselves in danger etc

wait....

Isnt that the same argument as - if they hadnt have joined the police they wouldnt have been blown up/shot etc

worth thinking about

Goodfella, Tir (None) - Posts: 1652 - 07/09/2011 13:39:27    1029097