David Montgomery: Please minister, you must try harder on integrated schools

In those days segregation was absolute.

My mother would say: ‘Those twins are the nicest boys, well-mannered, beautifully turned out by their mother...’

A pause, a deep breath and then she concluded: ‘Mind you, they’re Catholics.’

My mother, a Presbyterian, read the Bible with her mid-morning cup of tea, did not belong to any sectarian organisation and would not have thought herself a bigot.

Her attitude, the segregation of the two Christian communities, was the norm and never doubted or debated.

Between the age of five and 17, Bangor of that era involved church, the Boys’ Brigade and bagpipes and, of course, school.

At Bangor Grammar we were confronted by an odd new teacher, Mr Murphy, a Catholic from the south, and not much older than his pupils and probably homesick.

So he opened up to us: his mother had predicted that when he went north he would find it full of dark, evil looking Protestants. We boys responded that our mothers had warned of similar beings south of the border.

Only did I come across a Catholic of my own age on arrival at Queen’s. Sitting next to me at the students’ union launderette was Bernadette Devlin - a sort of levelling up experience as we watched our washing spinning around the machines.

Looking back, I realise that the majority of my young life had been deprived of the society of one half of the community.

It was intentional, and accentuated by the very anglicised Bangor of that time with its boys and girls grammars, puffed up to replicate England’s public schools. In short, no hint of Irishness.

Idyllic 1960s seaside Bangor in some ways, but the separate development stored up trouble and robbed generations of shared experience, shared culture and shared sense of belonging. The next decades were the result.

We should be proud of what Northern Ireland people have achieved in the last 30 years through reconciliation and economic rejuvenation - and, in particular, I admire the crucial role played by courageous parents, teachers and children to end school segregation.

The Integrated Education Fund has built and transformed 80 schools but it is far from meeting parental demand for a system of schooling that meets a 70 per cent support rating from the population.

Integrated education was enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement. It was belatedly given formal status in the Stormont Integrated Education Act in 2022 and it has been continually supported by governments in London, Dublin, Washington and Brussels.

But the scourge of thousands of children segregated and cut off from their contemporaries on grounds of religion is still the rule and it especially impacts disadvantaged communities.

NI political and some church leadership cannot bring itself to embrace the one education system that would put sectarianism and its characteristics of suspicion, ignorance and at times loathing behind us once and for all.

Minister Givan’s reason for blocking Bangor schools from integrated status is that they perhaps cannot achieve a balance of pupils from the different sides.

He misses the point and the principle of integrated schooling. Increasingly, Northern Ireland does not consist of two sides.

Across the many communities, heritage and newer arrivals, there is a growing sense of belonging to Northern Ireland, with or without the capital letter- identifying with a unique place and history that triumphed over years of bitter conflict - and sharing a sense of nationhood.

What opponents do not get is that integrated education strengthens rather than diminishes the separate cultures whether political, spiritual or sport.

Young people in our integrated schools learn what the heritage politicians have not - that you cannot suppress one or other tradition. Nurturing and understanding each culture is not just about respect and tolerance, it builds confidence in both main communities, diluting that corrosive sense that one or other is getting the upper hand.

In Bangor, parents voted by around 80 per cent to secure that future of equality and unity. The teachers support it. It is the democratic will in this case and more generally integrated education gets a 70 per cent approval rating in opinion polls.

Integrated schools are not perfection for everyone but the principle of learning under the same roof, experiencing the culture and traditions of different heritages and forming common bonds perpetuates the peace process.

I recently worked with a young successful executive in a London based international bank - a convent educated girl from Newry who described herself as a child of Good Friday.

‘But...I grew up never meeting Protestants,’ she said. ‘I came back home on holiday and saw an Orange parade for the first time. I didn’t know whether to hide or run away.’

So, still today, we hear the echoes of mid-20th century divided existence.

Could there be a more powerful argument for integrated education that might at last bestow a spirit of togetherness on our next generation?

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l David Montgomery is campaign chairman of the Integrated Education Fund and executive chair of NationalWorld, owner of the News Letter