Blast bomb, is a term used in Northern Ireland, for a type of improvised explosive device, a police officer was killed by a blast bomb in Northern Ireland during which ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland during the late 20th century, by loyalists?
The Troubles The Troubles (Irish: "Na Trioblóidí" ) was an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland during the late 20th century. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as a "guerrilla war" or a "low-level war". The conflict began in the late 1960s and it is usually deemed to have ended with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. Although the Troubles mainly took place in Northern Ireland, at times the violence spilled over into parts of the Republic of Ireland, England and mainland Europe.
Holy Cross dispute The Holy Cross dispute occurred in 2001 and 2002 in the Ardoyne area of north Belfast, Northern Ireland. During the 30-year conflict known as the Troubles, Ardoyne had become segregated – Ulster Protestants lived in one area and Irish Catholics in another. This left Holy Cross, a Catholic primary school for girls, in the middle of a Protestant area. In June 2001, Protestant loyalists began picketing the school, claiming that Catholics were regularly attacking their homes and denying them access to facilities. For weeks, hundreds of protesters tried to stop the schoolchildren and their parents from walking to school through their area. Some protesters shouted sectarian abuse and threw stones, bricks, fireworks, blast bombs and urine-filled balloons at the schoolchildren and their parents. Hundreds of riot police, backed up by British soldiers, escorted the children and their parents through the protest each day. The "scenes of frightened Catholic schoolgirls running a gauntlet of abuse from loyalist protesters as they walked to school captured world headlines". Death threats were made against the parents and school staff by the Red Hand Defenders, a loyalist paramilitary group. The protest was condemned by both Catholics and Protestants, including politicians. Some likened the protest to child abuse and compared the protesters to American white supremacists in 1950s Alabama.