A Brief Unity in North Belfast
Roman Catholics and Protestants united briefly in prayer Friday over the death of a Protestant teenager, the lone fatality in a week of riots and sectarian clashes.
Britain’s secretary for Northern Ireland, John Reid, led an effort to defuse tensions in North Belfast’s divided Ardoyne neighborhood. Last week, Protestants hurled insults, rocks and homemade grenades at Catholics walking to school through Ardoyne’s Protestant section.
On Friday, Protestants turned their backs in silence as Catholic parents escorted their children under armed guard to Holy Cross Primary School.
Some of the Catholic community’s religious leaders joined the Catholic governor of the besieged school in a prayer for Thomas McDonald, the 16-year-old who was fatally crushed by a Catholic driver during rioting Tuesday.
Reid, who met Catholic parents Thursday night and planned to speak with Ardoyne Protestants today, worked with Northern Ireland’s Catholic-Protestant administration to put together a special aid package for Ardoyne.
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