The distortion of history has at its worst fomented sectarian hatred of Protestants
The question is raised by a study of enterprising school students in England, who trawled the websites of Ulster schools to see which option they chose to study for Unit 1B of CCEA’s GCSE in History.
The charity, Parallel Histories, reported the findings in The Guardian and elsewhere.
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Hide AdIt appears that 90% of Roman Catholic schools taught the option Northern Ireland and Its Neighbours 1965-1998, which includes the civil rights era.
In controlled non-selective schools, two-thirds of pupils would have studied the other option, covering the period 1920-1949.
A reasonable assumption would be that Roman Catholic pupils would know more about the civil rights movement than their Protestant counterparts.
Why does it matter?
The civil rights movement accused Unionists of treating Catholics unfairly. Believing these accusations has fostered a guilt complex among the Protestant middle class, including many teachers.
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Hide AdOn the other side of the fence, it has encouraged a sense of aggrieved entitlement, under which concessions are necessary as reparations for past sins.
At their worst, accusations which involve distortion, exaggeration and downright falsehood have fomented sectarian hatred of Protestants.
This is really not just a case of introducing more teaching about the civil rights movement in controlled schools.
Given the unreliability and bias in the historical treatment of this subject, I would be concerned about the quality and balance of the material being taught.
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Hide AdFortunately, much more research is now being carried out which does not display an anti-unionist bias. I can recommend two papers from the book, The Northern Ireland Question: Perspectives on Nationalism and Unionism, which was reviewed in the News Letter (‘The nationalist narrative on Northern Ireland is challenged by writers in this badly needed book’).
Andrew Charles and Patrick Roche have done a great job in Irish republicans and the civil rights movement. Graham Gudgin’s paper, Discrimination in housing and employment, is full of good things.
My own research papers on the civil rights movement’s accusations are freely available at http://analogical.org.uk/historical papers/.
Parents reading this may have to go in for a bit of home schooling in encouraging their children to read material which is more critical of the civil rights movement’s claims. All of us, whether parents or not, have a duty to not simply accept uncritically what civil rights activists alleged.
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Hide AdWhen we adopt a more critical approach, we may find we have not got so many things to feel guilty about.
• Dr Paul Kingsley has an honours degree in Philosophy, master’s degrees in research methods, and a doctorate in computing
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