Nursery World - Thousands rally for peace at school

Teachers and classroom assistants were among thousands of people who attended anti-violence rallies across Northern Ireland last Friday to call for the disbanding of all terrorist organisations in the Province, in the wake of sectarian attacks at schools. Rallies were staged in Belfast, Londonderry, New-ry, Enniskillen, Omagh, Cookstown and Strabane by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. They followed the murder of a Roman Catholic postman by the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association and a blanket death threat by Protestant paramilitaries against workers in Catholic schools.

Rallies were staged in Belfast, Londonderry, New-ry, Enniskillen, Omagh, Cookstown and Strabane by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. They followed the murder of a Roman Catholic postman by the loyalist paramilitary Ulster Defence Association and a blanket death threat by Protestant paramilitaries against workers in Catholic schools.

Many unions called for a half-day stoppage and the rallies were supported by the four main churches and business organisations in Northern Ireland. A resolution by the ICTU was read out at all the rallies. It said in part, 'Our purpose in being here today is to illustrate our revulsion at any form of bigotry or sectarianism which has led to murder, violence and acts of intimidation we have suffered from these evil characteristics for more than three decades now.

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