Schoolgirl victims of sectarian attack

A group of schoolgirls from North Belfast were attacked by a sectarian mob as they made their way to school through the loyalist Ballysillan area.

The six teenagers from Ligoniel were kicked, spat on and had cans of lemonade poured over them by a gang from the Boys and Girls Model School as they made their way to Our Lady of Mercy Girls' Secondary School on Bilston Road on Monday 23 January.

As the frightened teenagers made their escape, two loyalists shouted anti-Catholic sectarian abuse at the school children.

The young girls were left shaken and traumatised by their ordeal.

Speaking to An Phoblacht the father of one of the girls hit out at the PSNI saying they didn't want to know about the incident. "When the PSNI were phoned about this sectarian attack they said they were understaffed at their Tennents Street Barracks and told us to contact the PSNI at Shore Road, which is miles away".

Sinn Féin Councillor Margaret McClenaghan said: "North Belfast has a number of interface workers at present tasked with dealing with this type of situation and I would call on them all to work together constructively to ensure the safety of all school children in the area."

Parents of schoolchildren attending the Catholic secondary school are now calling for a special bus service to be made available as no such service exists and the Catholic schoolchildren are forced to walk through the loyalist area.

Meanwhile, Catholic taxi drivers travelling through the unionist Blacks Road in West Belfast have been threatened with having their cars burned.

A number of local taxi companies have received phone calls warning them against using the predominantly Protestant stretch of the road.

One firm manager who wishes to remain anonymous said they have been receiving threatening phone calls on a regular basis.

"Our computer system was able to trace the numbers to phone boxes on the loyalist Tates Avenue and Dunmurry and we have given these numbers to the PSNI but so far we have heard nothing".

Another firm said they were told to stay away from the Black's Road area or the cars would be set alight.