Over stg£200,000 is to be spent building a school fence keeping rival factions apart in north Belfast, it was revealed today.
Work began this morning on the 25ft-high mesh barrier at Hazelwood Integrated Primary School which is attended by Protestant and Catholic children.
Head teacher Jill Houston said the last sectarian attack on neighbouring houses through the premises was over a year ago. It divides nationalist and loyalist residential communities.
Ms Houston said: "Children coming here from different parts of Belfast will see this peaceline when their parents wanted them to see a brighter future and a sense of hope."
"We are oversubscribed for pupils, we are on a peaceline and ordinary parents are voting with their feet.
"I feel absolutely let down but I also have a duty of care to my neighbours and I would be distraught if anyone was burned out of their home."
The Northern Ireland Office ordered the barricade to prevent missiles like bricks being hurled from the school grounds by opposing factions. Officials said they were acting on police advice.
The school is next to the mainly-nationalist Throne estate, which has been attacked by loyalist youths living in White City estate just across the school yard.
The school was established in 1985 in a gesture against division in an area which has witnessed some of the worst times of the conflict, with adjoining communities at loggerheads.
Ms Houston said August 2006 was the last incident but a more serious incident happened in05 an oil tank was set on fire and three houses affected.
PA