It may have been rubble on the road or wet tarmac that caused the little girl in the red coat to trip. But she fell clutching her lunchbox as she tried to escape the loud boom to her right.
A cloud of smoke rose from the spent pipe bomb just yards from where she sat screaming. Her mother quickly backtracked, encouraging the child to run the remaining distance.
Another blonde child appeared to break from her mother and forge ahead in the confused crowd, her face reddened from wailing. Father Aidan Troy of Holy Cross school stood in the corridor of armoured cars lining the road, urging on the crouched-over parents.
As over 100 Catholic parents and children entered the loyalist area just after 9 a.m. it appeared the Protestant protesters had changed their tactics.
The abusive crowds were gone, replaced by a handful of slow-clapping women with their backs turned, lining the road near burnt-out cars. "Yous should be ashamed of yourself," was the single catcall.
It was not until the procession reached Glenbryn Parade that rocks rained down and the children screamed. The explosion moments later proved tactics had changed for the worse.
The parents huddled around the school door, tears streaming down the faces of mothers and children. One woman pledged she would never send her child back. Her daughter looked up wide-eyed.
A spokesman for the parents, Mr Brendan Mailey, said his daughter was too terrified to stay for class. "How could she feel safe in this environment when they're throwing bombs at four-year-olds."
Father Troy said the explosion had brought the dispute to "new depths" and endangered the children's lives. "But that route must be used because otherwise we have decided to retreat into barbarity."
At 3 p.m. the parents made their way back under escort and met a silent protest from the residents. In the playground one couple debated whether to make the return journey with their daughter. "I'm not going until they push them right back up the side streets like they do to us," said the woman. "That cohort of Johnny Adair's is there. I saw him."