Children colour their walking nightmare
Karen
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2001/1017/north1.htm
In the days following the initial trauma of returning to Holy Cross School,
teachers and staff in the Ardoyne Health Centre encouraged children to draw
and paint their experiences, writes Jim Cusack, Security Editor
The image shown here was drawn by a five-year-old girl who, along with her
nine-year-old sister and mother, was caught up in the first week of violent
protest against their walk to school.
Both children were close to the explosion caused by the pipe bomb thrown at
the Holy Cross families by a teenage member of the UDA (the Ulster Defence
Association).
The explosion caused bad leg injuries to an RUC officer from Co Fermanagh.
He has made a good recovery. But the children and their mothers have had a
more difficult time coming to terms with the violent protests against them.
There are fears of long-term psychological damage.
The fright of the initial violent days surrounding their return to school
can be seen in this painting by the five-year-old. It is typical of those
produced by the children, according to teachers and parents at the school.
The image has at its centre two straight lines that represent the Ardoyne
Road as it takes the children up towards the school. At the top of the two
parallel lines is a crayon grid with faces of children. These are the
children who are in the safety of the school. The grid is a good
representation of the school which was built in the 1960s in "international"
modern style with straight horizontal and vertical lines on the façade
looking out onto Ardoyne Road.
The children's faces in the school are mainly happy although one is shown to
have a "sad" face.
To the left of the "road" the child has displayed, in the bottom corner,
figures in black and a protester holding a Union flag. The protester's mouth
is painted red.
Directly in front of the protester is an indeterminate image in black Biro.
This is apparently the explosion caused by the UDA pipe bomb.
A similar image appears in another painting by the child's older sister and
the word "boom" is written in her explosion image.
The black figures on the bottom left of the painting are of the RUC riot
squad members who have consistently kept their fire-protective face masks
pulled down as the families pass to and from school. An RUC member has
pointed out that although he and his colleagues are aware this is not a
pleasant sight or experience for the families, officers have received death
threats from the loyalists and, as most of them live in Protestant areas,
they all want to keep their identities hidden from the UDA.
The odd orange-coloured vehicle with what appears to be a light flashing on
its roof is one of the armoured vehicles that line the route to school.
The incongruous line of daffodils beside the protesters and police on the
left-hand of the painting is another accurate image from the child as
several of the houses on the Protestant stretch of the Ardoyne Road still
have neat front gardens where flowers bloomed in early September.
Similarly, across the top of the painting, on either side of the school,
there are trees painted in yellow and red, accurately describing the colour
change in the leaves that took place in early autumn.
On the lower right-hand side of the painting are more disturbing images. The
child depicts herself here, in the red top of the school. She is crying. Her
sister, in a black dress, is also crying.
Both the child and her sister have depicted a teddy bear in the bottom
right-hand corner. The teddy apparently belongs to the older child. In a
painting by the older sister, the teddy bear is holding its paws up to its
mouth and looks frightened. In the image painted by the younger child,
however, the teddy remains happy and appears to be comforting the crying
sister.
There are two more police officers in black riot gear on the left and in the
bottom centre-left is what may be another depiction of an explosion. The
explosion did happen on the left-hand side of the children's route, so this
is accurate.
Parents and staff in the local health centre say these images are very
common among the children's paintings. The mother of the two girls said she
could not bear to look at the pictures on her fridge door.
The local GP, Dr Michael Tan, has appealed to the health authorities to
provide professional help but, by the end of last week, neither the local
health trust or the Department of Health had intervened to provide a child
psychologist on a full-time basis in Ardoyne to help the children and their
parents.
Dr Tan says the effects of the trauma inflicted on the children is worsening
and he is very worried that long-term psychological damage will be caused.
Meanwhile, some of the protesters seemed to be revelling in the
psychological damage being caused to the children and parents.
Last week, after media comment on the likelihood of such effects, one of the
loyalist women shouted at the parents and children: "We've your nerves
wrecked!"