When a group of young Ardoyne girls excitedly don new school uniforms for their first day at secondary school next month they won't be the only ones embarking on a new life after the trauma of the Holy Cross protest seven years ago.

For in just a month's time Father Aidan Troy will pack his bags and say goodbye to Ardoyne for the last time as he heads off to a new post as a parish priest in Paris. It’s a bittersweet irony for the outspoken and fearless Passionist priest that as he finally moves on so too will the last pupils of the school that was thrust into the glare of the world's media in 2001.

"I'm a great believer in God's providence and maybe there is something in the fact that the last little pupils have left school and are moving on when I am," he said.

"I meet some of those youngsters who were four years old then and who are 11 now and they stop me on the street and say hello and say I used to walk them to school and I just think that's wonderful."

Eventful seven years

Its been an eventful seven years for the Co Wicklow born priest. From being posted to Ardoyne and walking into a maelstrom no one could have foreseen to standing beside dozens of families as they buried their love ones who lost their lives to suicide. From winning a prestigious Irish American peace award to receiving a sinister death threat that led to President Mary McAleese personally offering him a place to stay, Fr Troy has packed into  just 84 months what many of his counterparts have packed into an entire clerical career.

However, it was arriving in the North Belfast parish in August 2001 after serving in Italy for seven years that gave him his baptism of fire.

"I became chair of the Board of Governors of 6 August and the girls went back to school on 3 September so we had less than a month before we knew what we were going to do about the situation that was brewing," he said.

Horrible

"I was naive I thought it couldn't go on for too long but it did. It was horrible and wrong and we all knew it but the advantage was, if I look back on it now, getting to know so many parishioners and so many of the people.

"You could be in a parish for five to six years and still have people wondering who you are. Shortly into the protest I realised how solid this community can be in the face of danger.

"I saw what this community is capable of and it was clear to me that without the community trusting you, you could do nothing.”

Fr Troy walked with the little girls and their parents up the Ardoyne Road every day during those traumatic 12 weeks as protesters jeered, called female parents 'Fenian whores' , threw missiles, urine filled balloons and even blast bombs.

An experience no priest expects to walk into, but one he faced with his usual stoicism.

Killed

"There came a stage where I was really afraid a child would be killed or something else terrible would happen. I began to realise what an awesome responsibility it was."

Today Fr Troy can leave the parish with the knowledge that even though there is still a very long way to go, the situation has improved immeasurably since those dark days in 2001.

"I have great admiration for the community workers on both sides who go out day and night. I have seen people on both sides reigning people back and calming down the situation.

"That is one of the great things I have seen and I would be very hopeful in that sense. It would be foolish to say we have got there but in comparison to how it was when we were walking down the road with Holy Cross no one would have foreseen we would have come so far.”

The priest's refusal to stay quiet about issues he cares about and his desire to stick his head above the parapet has often led him into danger. As he himself admits he could "paper the wall with phoned in death threats" but one was particularly serious. Shortly after the Holy Cross blockade police intelligence picked up information that his life was seriously under threat. He received a visit from the PSNI on a Friday evening warning him there were serious plans to kill him over the weekend.

"This threat was different and we knew it was serious," he recalled.

"The police offered to escort me to Newry and I could then cross over into the Republic and I remember telling them they might as well hang a notice on the gates saying there was a threat made against me if that happened.

"'I just told them I wasn't going anywhere and I'm telling you that was a bad weekend. I'm not sure how the news got out but it did and I remember President McAleese ringing me herself and asking did I want a room down in Aras an Uachtarain.

"The Irish government sent someone up to offer me an apartment and a driver for the weekend, I couldn't get over the support, here I am a priest just working away here and I will never forget the goodness of people.

"I didn't tell anyone in the parish because I was worried in case anyone tried to take the law into their own hands and make some sort of pre emptive strike. I remember saying mass that weekend and no one in the parish knew. When the news finally did come out they were so supportive and only wanted to know why I didn't tell them."

As well as experiencing some of his own dark days in the parish, Fr Troy has been a steadfast figure of support for families whose lives have been touched by tragedy. He is a strong supporter of the Public Initiative for the Prevention of Suicide and Self Harm (PIPS) Project and has stood by dozens of local people who have been affected by suicide and death of a loved one.

"The suicide issue in the area is one that has affected me greatly and I commend so much the work of people on the ground doing all they can to help our young people.

"I have been with the parish for some terrible times. I remember a few years ago between Christmas and New Year I had to tend to the funerals of five different babies.

"One thing you learn in all those situations is don't give people explanations, don't say anything about God. You just have to be with people and say you will do what you can for them.

No answers

“One of the saddest things I will ever do is to get a call to the maternity or the children's hospital because there are just no answers. They are the toughest and also the most amazingly privileged moments to witness human solidarity."

The priest says some of the best memories he will take away is the warmth and support of local people.

"While they can certainly disagree with you and say tough things I never had one person questioning why I was knocking on their door, speaking to them or suggesting something to them.

"I know so many of my colleagues throughout the world experience a particularly strong anti-clerical, anti-priest feeling but when I knocked on doors here the only complaint was I don't call enough. That is a tremendous thing to say in 2008 and a huge memory of mine. 

“I remember my sister came up to stay a year or so after I arrived here and we went for a walk and when we returned she was amazed that all the children and young people spoke to me. It shows you how lovely people are."

He said his worst memory of his time with the parish is the decision to closer St Gabriel's College. The 50-year old school shuts its doors for the final time on 31 August.

"That is one of my great sadnesses. I think and hope that within the next five years there will be a rethink of the need in this area and we have a new primary school and I hope provision for a secondary school as well. 

“St Gabriel's is 50 years old and for 40 of those years it carried a huge burden of the troubles. When the Holy Cross protest happened children's lives could have been lost if St Gabriel's hadn't opened their doors and said you can always escape through our entrance. They opened their gates for the girls every morning and I don't they ever got the thanks they deserved for that.

"I felt so betrayed when the Catholic Church decided to close it, I feel it was very short sighted. Even when the numbers don't stack up you have to take the long view. In light of things like suicides, crime and unemployment in the area I feel like our young men deserve more.

"I know I didn't make any friends when I spoke out but I wanted to make the point that this decision will never be alright in Ardoyne. It’s the wrong decision and I would say that to the minister and I would say it to the bishops. It may have been the right decision according to Westminster economics but according to the gospel and according to society it was totally wrong.

"I don't intend on coming back to the parish because I don't came back to a place once I leave because it wouldn't be fair to come back and do weddings and christenings and things, but if there is ever another school made on the St Gabriel's site even if I have to come out of my grave I will be there."

Fr Gary Donegan will take over from Fr Troy in September when he heads off to the English speaking parish in the French capital. Fr Troy said he has "high hopes" for his future there.

Paris beckons

"It’s an enormous privilege to be asked to go to one of the most beautiful cities in the world. I have heard there are over 40 nationalities in the parish and I am very much looking forward to meeting them.

'It is a prestigious role and I am very honoured to have been asked although I'm sure the priests over there are wondering who this geek coming over from Belfast is."

As he stands at the top of Holy Cross steps and glances across the rain sodden and wind battered parish he has served so passionately over the past seven years he says his final dream for the people of Ardoyne is to see the peace walls come down.

"I believe the best is yet to come for Ardoyne. I know the storm clouds haven't gone yet but I hope that people don't lose heart and keep on going.

"I hope that one day people on either side of the peace walls could risk lowering them until one day they come down altogether. Not when the police or government or clergy say so but when the people say so. I think that will be a tangible sign that what has happened up in Stormont has translated down to the streets here. That's my dream for Ardoyne."