`This is so much better today," said a mother as she walked her daughter to Holy Cross girls' school in Ardoyne yesterday. To an outsider it would have been impossible to see what she was pleased about. Hundreds of loyalist protesters shouted abuse as the Catholic parents and children followed the 300-yard route to the school gates. "Who let the Taigs out?" they screamed. "Go home, Fenian scum!"

The ground was thick with broken bottles and bricks hurled at the children and mothers on Monday. Fewer missiles were thrown yesterday. "At least the RUC are letting us walk up the middle of the road today and not keeping us squeezed to the side like they did yesterday. And so far no parents or kids have been injured by the protesters today," the mother said. That counts as "progress" in Ardoyne.

Holy Cross was built in 1969. Ardoyne is predominantly Catholic, but the school is in the Protestant enclave of Glenbryn. Its facilities and daily routine have implicitly acknowledged that the surrounding territory is hostile. After the last pupil leaves, metal shutters come down over the classroom windows, transforming the school into a bunker.

In the grounds, there are no mobile classrooms, climbing frames or anything that could be burnt or destroyed. Tensions have always been high, but until this summer the Catholic pupils had been able to walk freely to their classes. Why after 32 years did that change?

The most obvious reason is the growing sense of alienation in the working-class Protestant community in the North generally and in Ardoyne in particular. There is increasing opposition to the Belfast Agreement and the entire political process. There is a feeling that everything is going in favour of Catholics.

Protestants in Ardoyne say they have been subject to 120 sectarian attacks in the past three months. "We are intimidated if we try to go to the post office or the shops," says one resident. "It is not just a case of the big bad Protestants and the poor wee Roman Catholics. It is the Roman Catholics who started the sectarian attacks."

Glenbryn is a deprived area, but its Protestant residents feel their social and economic situation is overlooked as attention focuses on Catholic poverty. Mr David Trimble alluded to the problem when he called on the Social Development Minister, Mr Maurice Morrow, to convene a forum on housing and social deprivation in north Belfast.

The protesters also say they object not to the Holy Cross pupils but to "known republicans" who they claim are accompanying the children to school. The Protestant Concerned Residents of Upper Ardoyne also allege that the media is biased against them and is deliberately not representing their side of the story.

The protesters have lost the media battle. The image of unionism has suffered greatly as pictures of schoolchildren having to run a gauntlet of hate to reach their classrooms are flashed around the world. Most observers find it impossible to accept that Protestant grievances are in any way alleviated by yelling and spitting at children and calling their mothers "whores" and "sluts". The contrast of little Catholic girls with tears running down their faces and grown adult Protestants shouting abuse at them does nothing to advance unionism. E-mails to local newspapers from abroad have described the protesters as "savages", "degenerates" and "mentally unstable".

Unionist politicians have suggested that, at least until tensions ease, the Catholic children should take an "alternative route" to school. Instead of entering by the main gates, they would go up the Crumlin Road, cross a football pitch and enter Holy Cross by a back door. Some parents were willing to do this yesterday, but at least half weren't. "I will not have my Protestant neighbours treat my daughter like a second-class citizen," says Ms Lucy Irvine.

"What are we saying about ourselves if we agree to go through the back door?" says Mr Paul Donnelly. "And where would loyalists stop? Would they want us to enter shops and restaurants and hospitals by the back door next?"

In terms of propaganda, the protest has been of huge benefit to Sinn Fein, which had been under pressure over the Colombia episode and its refusal to sign up to new policing proposals. "It has taken an awful lot of pressure off Sinn Fein," said one republican. "It's very difficult to insist the IRA hand over arms when Catholic children can hardly get to school. It can be argued that this proves some weapons are needed to protect our community."

But Holy Cross could also create unease for the Sinn Fein and Provisional IRA leadership and help republican dissidents. Ardoyne was always sceptical of the benefits of the peace process. Grassroots republicans there had already expressed strong objections to even a gesture on decommissioning.

Several republican supporters yesterday said they were rapidly losing faith in the peace process. "Things were meant to have changed with the agreement, but nothing has changed. Catholics are still fighting for basic civil rights just like they were in the 1960s," one said. Still, Sinn Fein has far more to gain than to lose from the protest. Its propaganda value around the world cannot be overestimated. The debate on a local radio programme yesterday was whether Ardoyne 2001 more closely resembled 1960s Alabama or Little Rock Arkansas 1957.