Belfast schoolchildren

[FionaS]

Regarding the top news story - the Catholic children being escorted to school by police/soldiers due to harrassment. Why is this suddenly big news - what happened last term? Is this a new school?

[PDTV]

It's not suddenly big news, it's part of a long-running issue, but this time it included very young children, which is why it attracted such media coverage. Did you ever ask yourself why so many TV cameras happened to be lining the road? The route to the Holy Cross school was blockaded by Protestant residents in June because they claimed they had been abused and intimidate by republicans. When the school broke up for the summer, there was supposed to be talks between community leaders on both sides to bring about a compromise. As they say, the talks failed.