On Wednesday, in a bitter act of sectarian violence, Protestant parliamentarians in Belfast threw a homemade bomb at police officers who were escorting Roman Catholic girls to elementary school. Holy Cross Primary School is located in a Protestant area, and the loyalist population objects to the children walking up their road to get to class.

Protesters not only threw a bomb and broken bricks, but shouted epithets at the young children as they attempted to start their new school year. One student, 6-year-old Aina Booth, said, "I feel terrified. But the worst is the bad words," (The New York Times).

A Brief History of Conflict in Ireland...
Until 1922, Ireland as a whole was occupied by and ruled from Britain. According to the novel, Facets of the Conflict in Northern Ireland, "From 1918, Ulster Protestants?set out to ensure that the northern counties of Ireland, at least, should be excluded from any Home Rule arrangements. The 1920 Government of Ireland Act, which came into effect in the following year, recognized and confirmed their position by partitioning the island."

Ireland Today...
The conflict that existed then and still exits today is between Catholic nationalists, who want to see a united Ireland, and Protestant unionists, who want Northern Ireland to remain as part of the United Kingdom.

More than 3,600 lives have been lost in the sectarian violence of the past three decades between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland. Protestants have always been the majority in the region, but CBS News reports that, "Unpublished census figures show the faster growing Catholic community is now almost half the population at 47 percent."

Would a Catholic majority in Northern Ireland help or hurt the possibility of lasting peace in the region? When do you think there will be lasting peace in Northern Ireland, if ever? What do you think of the recent riots involving Catholic elementary school children?

Carolyn Lastowski, Editor