Walk-outs by schoolchildren across the North have stoked the controversy over the appointment of Mr Martin McGuinness, of Sinn Fein, as Minister of Education in the Northern Ireland Executive.
There were protests yesterday at schools in Cookstown, Co Tyrone, and Newtownabbey, Bally money, and Glengormley, Co An trim. In the Shankill area of west Belfast up to 200 children chanted slogans as they paraded in the street waving a loyalist flag.
There were also scenes at Carrickfergus Grammar School, Co Antrim, when students from a nearby school attempted to force other students to take part in a walk-out. A door of the school and a teacher's car were damaged.
Mr McGuinness said yesterday he would not be deflected by the protests, which he claimed had been orchestrated by elements within the DUP.
"The older people out there who are clearly instigating these protests need to consider whether or not they are doing these children any favour at all," he said. The DUP has denied instigating the protests and Mr Ian Paisley jnr described allegations that his party was manipulating children for political ends as "nonsense". He said students were simply expressing their "genuine concerns".
Mr McGuinness yesterday advised all schoolchildren to "focus on their education, on the need to work hard, to be good to one another".
He also defended remarks he made at an engagement in Derry on Monday about his time on the run from the law in Leitrim in the early 1970s by saying: "I'm not prepared to run from my past and other people should not run away from their pasts."
Mr McGuinness has also been criticised by the Ulster Unionist chairman of the Assembly committee on education, Mr Danny Kennedy, for an interview in which he outlined his intention to give priority status to the teaching of the Irish language.
"His actions and his public statements have been very unhelpful and I hope and trust that senior officials in the department will consider giving some timely advice to the minister," Mr Kennedy said. The North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, said people encouraging the protests should "think again" and he stressed that a minister was not in complete control of his department as, under the framework of the new administration, a system of checks and balances existed on their powers.
Any proposals for policy changes would have to come through the Executive, and the day-to-day work of the minister would be scrutinised by the Assembly committee, he added.
"There is a structure there that will provide balance and I think that people should not be too concerned and they shouldn't allow those that are scaremongering to do so," Mr Trimble said.
Mr David Ervine of the Progressive Unionist Party said he had no evidence that anti-agreement unionists were orchestrating the protests, but added: "It would not be a shock to me if that was to be the case."
The deputy leader of the DUP, Mr Peter Robinson, said yesterday that young people had a voice and they should speak out. "Everyone may not agree with it but I don't think we should try to suppress it."