If the situation relating to Holy Cross Primary School is not addressed shortly, there will be loss of life, the chairman of the board of governors warned last night.
Father Aidan Troy was speaking after a meeting with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, to discuss the stand-off in north Belfast.
"If we don't address this and if we let this get any further out of hand my big worry after the bomb yesterday on Alliance Avenue is that we are very close to the loss of life," Father Troy said.
He met with Mr Ahern for an hour and had a meeting earlier with the President, Mrs McAleese. He said he had an obligation to warn people that the situation was "highly dangerous" and little girls were caught in the middle of it.
He wanted to explain to Mr Ahern what it was like "on the ground every day" and what political intervention could be made to improve the situation. The British Prime Minister, Mr Blair, must do something to "pull together the situation". Father Troy said his principle interest was to "get the children off the road because the suffering is so intense". He said children were absolutely terrorised by what was going on and getting sick as a result.
"If we said that you can't access the school in Blackrock (in Dublin) except by going through Stillorgan you'd all say there was something strange."
Mr Ahern said the children had been subjected to appalling treatment. "While the Glenbryn and Ardoyne communities may have serious problems to address, there can be no justification for a protest targeted at young children. The protest at the school should be brought to an end immediately before more damage is inflicted on the innocent victims of this dispute."