-whitewolf(ray)

A new television drama based on loyalist intimidation and
violence against schoolgirls and their families at Holy Cross
Primary School in north Belfast has sparked a controversy.

The drama, which will be aired on BBC1 on Monday November 10
at 9pm, uses fictional characters and is intended to depict
the 'corridor of hate'. For months, Catholic schoolgirls and
their parents were forced to walk through a gauntlet of
sectarian abuse and pipe bombs with little or no protection
from British 'security' forces.

The situation has been compared to the civil rights campaign
in the southern U.S.

But there were concerns that the drama would artifically
attempt to "balance out" the situation by depicting the two
communities as two sides of the same coin.

Loyalist community worker Jim Potts, who watched a special
screening last night, said the drama was "fairly balanced".

The programme focuses on two 10-year-old girls, one Catholic
and one Protestant, who live back to back from each other in
the Ardoyne area of North Belfast.

The show focuses on the violence through the eyes of the
children and the way it affected and traumatised them - many
are still having counselling.

Father Aidan Troy of the Holy Cross school, the priest who
bravely resisted pressure on him to take the children to
school through a back entrance, said there was "a very high
degree of apprehension" among local people.

He said: "It is just too raw ... The suspension of the protest
only came on 23 November 2001. The children at the school are
the same children. The families are the same families. And the
protesters are the same protesters. Lots of parents are saying
this programme could cause big trouble yet."

The programme makers admitted they filmed the drama in
Liverpool, rather than Belfast, because of "heightened
sensitivities".

It can be seen on RTE this Saturday [tomorrow] and on BBC 1 on
Monday, November 10, at 9pm.

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