As the school year ended last June, a blockade by Protestant residents prevented pupils of Holy Cross primary school from using the front entrance. The ensuing standoff sparked scenes as violent as any this summer.
Hopes of a resolution of the dispute during the holidays seem forlorn as tensions in the area are higher than in June. Attempts to reach a negotiated settlement between the two communities broke down amid mutual recrimination last week. While nationalists and loyalists say talks are ongoing, in some cases involving paramilitaries, the positions taken by both sides seem as far apart as ever.
The Protestant Concerned Residents of Upper Ardoyne (CRUA) say they want "a constant stage of siege" addressed as part of any settlement, while the nationalist parents' Right to Education group insists it is a single issue - to restore the pupils' right of access to their school.
A face-to-face meeting between the two groups ended abruptly last week with the CRUA delegation leaving after reading out a statement. They would not negotiate with nationalists while other issues were "referred on to faceless people who continue to refuse to meet us".
Mr Brendan Mailey, a spokesman for Right to Education, said they had put CRUA in contact with a large number of community groups. He said they refused "to let children be used for political leverage".
He said "a small number of parents have already decided that they are not going to send their children back" because of the fear they had experienced in June. They rejected suggestions that pupils use an alternative entrance - "the only thing we'd miss then would be the yellow stars".
Mr Nigel Dodds, the DUP MP for North Belfast, said there was still a desire among the unionist community to reach a resolution but it was unrealistic to discuss the school issue in isolation.
The Holy Cross pupils could use other entrances to the school, he said, but "for many Protestant kids, because the playground, the library and so on are situated in a nationalist area where there are Tricolours flying and Sinn Fein graffiti, it's impossible for them to use those facilities, and we've had pensioners told not to come down and lift their pension from the post office".
The apparent breakdown in negotiations comes at a time of increased tension. The house of the CRUA spokesman, Mr Mark Coulter, was paintbombed last week and republicans were blamed for throwing a nail-bomb into a Protestant house on nearby Westland Row the previous week.
Nationalists, meanwhile, point to an ever-increasing number of pipe-bomb and blastbomb attacks in the area. Mr Eoin O Broin, a Sinn Fein councillor, criticised the RUC for doing nothing about these attacks and contrasted this perceived inactivity with yesterday's arrest and charging of eight people for alleged offences during a riot on July 12th.
A newly-arrived priest in the parish, Father Aiden Troy, has offered his services as a mediator.