Fr. Troy offers comfort to a mother and child.
By Seth Linder, Contributor
“There were men and women, over their fences, shouting names and spitting and pulling people’s hair…and then a bomb flew over. Father Troy told us all to run. I thought everyone was going to die.”
Roisin Crawford was nine years of age during the infamous Holy Cross protest of 2001, when a group of Loyalist protesters, claiming provocation from local Republicans (including parents of the schoolchildren) as their motive, picketed Catholic schoolgirls on their way to and from school for 12 terrifying weeks. In a city where ownership of land is fiercely prized, particularly amongst the declining Protestant population, Holy Cross, servicing North Belfast’s Catholic Ardoyne community, has the misfortune to stand just inside Protestant `territory.’ Schoolgirls must walk through a stretch of road that belongs exclusively to the Protestant community in order to get to school.