https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0m314lrywno
The priest who helped shield schoolgirls during the 2001 Holy Cross dispute has said the "hurt" of that ordeal could happen again.
Speaking on the 25th anniversary of Holy Cross, Fr Aidan Troy said that possibility is what keeps him "devoted to dialogue, to conversation, to searching for justice and to caring about people".
Fr Aidan said the sectarian dispute was "hatred at its worst".
It happened in north Belfast when loyalist protesters tried to block the route taken by Holy Cross school pupils and their parents, who were from a Catholic background, on their walk to class.
Following the initial violence, the police and Army put up crash barriers to keep a corridor route open for the Holy Cross pupils.
The images of terrified schoolgirls having to run the gauntlet between lines of armoured police officers in order to get to their primary school were beamed around the world.
Protestants claimed that Catholics were attacking their homes and said the school protest was their way of highlighting their concerns.
Stones, bottles, fireworks and even a blast bomb were thrown during weeks of unrest.
Fr Aidan, who was parish priest in Ardoyne at the time, told BBC News NI that "none of us want to see hatred".
Police officers in riot gear escorting a young child. There is a crowd of people around them.Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,
Police officers in riot gear escorted schoolgirls and their families past the protesters
"Hatred is the rawest, smelliest, most awful thing that anyone stood in the middle of," he said.
"We tell this story, not to blame, but to say we are capable of doing this to each other but let's make a commitment that we never will and we'll not do anything that would ever demean the way those children were demeaned."
He said people come up to him and thank him for what he did.
"I am embarrassed because I didn't do anything really worthwhile," he said.
"People say their children were given dignity. They were worth going in the front door and they were worth fighting for, and you stood in the middle of the road and said so."
He added that "it could happen again".
"The shock of Holy Cross, even 25 years later, probably means that it probably would not happen [again] in the exact same form, but the hurt is always possible," he said.
A soldier with a gun. He is stood next to two army vehicles. It appears to be in a residential area.
Image caption,
The police and Army put up crash barriers to keep a corridor route open for the Holy Cross pupils
About 100 pupils needed counselling due to their daily ordeal, according to principal at the time, Anne Tanney.
Speaking to the BBC in 2004, she said that even as an adult, she was traumatised by the protests .
"There were times when I couldn't eat, couldn't sleep," she said. "I used to bite my lip, trying not to cry in front of the children."
Norman Hamilton sitting in a soft chair. He is wearing a purple sweater and shirt. He has grey hair and blue eyes, and is looking off to the right of the image frame.
Image caption,
Rev Norman Hamilton was minister of Ballysillan Presbyterian Church at the time and played a key role in mediation efforts
Rev Norman Hamilton was minister of Ballysillan Presbyterian Church at the time of the protests and played a key role in mediation efforts aimed at bringing the dispute to an end.
He described what happened at Holy Cross as a "quagmire" and "one of the biggest events" in his life.
"It was just awful, absolutely awful.
"You couldn't avoid being profoundly affected simply because of the scale and the length and the depth of what was going on."
Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme, Rev Hamilton said he worries that people in Northern Ireland are "finding new ways of dividing our society" and that it takes "very little to spark protests and riots".
He used the recent examples of riots in Ballymena and Belfast and that when "communities become fractured for whatever reason, violence is always a real possibility and sometimes seems inevitable".
"I genuinely feel, in many ways, that Northern Ireland is actually more divided now, albeit on along different lines, than it was 25 years ago."
Fr Gary Donegan. He has short white hair, wearing a black shirt and white priest collar.
Image caption,
Fr Gary Donegan was one of the priests who walked alongside schoolchildren and parents through the protests
Fr Gary Donegan was one of the priests who walked alongside schoolchildren and parents through the protests outside Holy Cross Primary School.
He described the protests as "an enormous part of" his life and a "life changing experience".
"You kind of realised that something had changed here because children were sacrosanct but this was something different," Fr Gary told Good Morning Ulster.
"It was the tension and the terror on very, very small children – it was just unbelievable at the time, it took everybody by surprise."
Fr Gary said some of the mothers "never ever recovered from the situation".
"The reality of what it was like for those children is so prevalent in their lives to this day.
"You cannot deny what happened, but I think you have to be extremely careful about how you remember things and what people say."
Fr Gary said while people "have moved on", there are people who "can use events like Holy Cross or other things in order to heighten tension because they need tension in order to be relevant".
