The diary: 'None of us can live like this'

Lynda Bowes, from the Ardoyne, whose daughter, Amanda, attends Holy Cross, tells Kieran McDaid of her week

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Monday

"Men and women were calling my children Fenian bastards and spitting at us. We expected a protest but we had no idea that type of hostility would be directed at children.''

Tuesday

"I had been somewhat reassured by news reports and we saw we would be in the middle of the road and thought we'd be safer. Amanda said: 'That looks better'. They shouted abuse, but we can handle that.''

Wednesday

"Me and Amanda expected verbal abuse but nothing could prepare us for what happened. Bricks began to rain in. Then the blast bomb came. You cannot describe the panic. I grabbed Amanda and ran. I didn't stop crying until 5pm."

Thursday

"I swore I would never go through the security tunnel again but Amanda's father said that he would go. 'Well, if daddy goes, I'll go,' she said. She's very strong-willed and resilient, thank God.''

Friday

"There has been a memorial service for Thomas McDonald, a Protestant teenager who had been killed. Today has been very sad. All our thoughts are with his family. I really hope we are past the worst. Our children are our hope for the future. None of us can live like this.''

Kieran McDaid is a reporter for the 'Irish News', Belfast.