The Bishop of Killaloe, Fintan Monahan is one of the 30 contributors to a new book on the benefits of integrated education as a vehicle for radical change in Northern Ireland, which is edited by a Lough Derg author.
“If a United Ireland were to be declared in current circumstances, the Unionist hardliners would be out with their guns. They have said so to the author of this book. We must first work towards a United Northern Ireland where both sides accept and respect each other; where ‘otherness’ is seen not as a threat, but as the enrichment that difference can bring. This can be achieved only by educating the children of both sides together for a considerable time. We need therefore to persuade those in power to make this happen.”
This is the opening of a new book ‘The Sundered Children’ edited by the author, former journalist, college lecturer and teacher of journalism and writing, David Rice, who celebrated his 90th birthday last April.
It explores the importance of integrated education in Northern Ireland as a vital precursor to a United Ireland.
The Newry native spent his formative years in a mixed area of Northern Ireland, where children of both denominations played and grew up together.
This personal experience prompted his interest in asking the important questions that are addressed in this book, such as how education can build peace, the importance of building a ‘United Northern Ireland’ before a ‘United Ireland’ is established, and the problems currently faced in striving for an integrated educational system.
“If the present polarisation of Northern Ireland’s population were to remain unchanged, this would achieve a ‘disunited’ Ireland,” said David Rice.
“I believe that there can be no United Ireland without first getting a United Northern Ireland. This can only be achieved by educating children together.”
‘The Sundered Children’ brings together 30 essays from a number of thinkers, educationalists and religious leaders.
Contributors include Irish President, Michael D Higgins, historian and Professor Diarmaid Ferriter, Professor John FitzGerald, Senator Ian Marshall, Frank Connolly, Broadfor author Marie O’Connell, Professor Aine Hyland, Bishop Donal McKeown, Bishop Fintal Monahan and Linda Ervine MBE among many others.
Speaking at the launch in the Lakeside Hotel, Ballina, Killaloe, Mr Rice this project was not about him but about 30 people who had written “extraordinary ” chapters for this book.
“I was worried about Northern Ireland, and as I got older I kept thinking polarisation has not gone away,” he said.
“The people who should be doing something about it were doing nothing. I have called this silence the ‘black hole in our Northern galaxy. It bothered me.
“Once I started on this book, I couldn’t stop. All the contributors were so kind to write chapters for no fee. All the royalties are going to the National Council for Integrated Education in Northern Ireland.
“Let us hope change comes to Northern Ireland that could echo around the world.”
Writing in his book, Mr Rice acknowledged integrated education would certainly not be a panacea, solving everything immediately and directly, but it could lead to real and lasting change in Ireland.
However, he believes it is a necessary condition that must first be fulfilled before any other remedies can be effective. It is all a long way off, with only seven percent of children in Northern Ireland attending an officially integrated school.
The other 93 percent attend either maintained schools or controlled schools.
These controlled schools account for 49 percent of schools in Northern Ireland, and provide education for over 143,000 children. In controlled schools 61 percent of pupils are Protestant, 10 percent are Catholic, 29 percent are ‘other’.
In the diocese of Killaloe, there are approximately 140 primary schools under diocesan patronage and, in the five counties that the diocese covers, there are very few opportunities for alternative models of patronage, apart from a small number, namely, Foras Patrúnachta, Steiner, and the Educate Together schools. Having consulted and listened carefully to many people, it is Bishop Monahan’s strong opinion that it is in the interest of all stakeholders that a diversity and variety of patronage should be available.There is another interesting precedent in Killaloe: in the Parish of Kyle and Knock, the Gaelscoil an tSlí Dála is under joint patronage, of the Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland. When agreement was made to proceed with that, one of his predecessors, Bishop Willie Walsh, raised quite a number of eyebrows, especially north of the border.
“However, it has been a highly successful model of education and works very well.
“Denominational, integrated, non-denominational education, shared patronage—we embrace the challenges and opportunities of the many options and choices available, in the interests of catering for the needs and desires of all who want meaningful education in the modern and changing world, ” Bishop Monahan stated.
The President’s View
President Michael D Higgins wrote in his chapter the role of education is central to peacebuilding, with evidence to support the view that, when equitably available, of good quality, relevant and conflict-sensitive, education can help promote peace, inclusivity, tolerance, and provide safe environments. On the other hand, when its delivery is characterised with exclusion and inequity, for example through a biased curriculum, it can exacerbate conflict.
“Integrated education is a key means to enabling and sustaining a peaceful co-existence of communities, of promoting values and attitudes that provide a basis for peacebuilding in a post-conflict setting such as Northern Ireland.
“Young people should feel that they belong in any school irrespective of their religion, or lack of religion. Young people should not feel segregated from others based on dangerous sectarian criteria that merely reinforces notions of ‘The Other’. Young people in Northern Ireland deserve to see leadership being demonstrated, to end segregation, and to respond to decades of mandates for integration.”
Lessons To Be Learned
Speaking at the launch, Master of Ceremonies, Brian MacAree described the publication as a “fascinating” collection of essays about the impact of segregated education in Northern Ireland, why it happens and what it should stop.
Mr MacAree said the two cultures of Protestant and Catholic grew into two political identities Republican and Loyalist that is not unique as this division also exists throughout Europe.
How these two cultures have been reconciled in other countries is one of the topics of the book.
“This is a book of lessons to be learned. Lessons come from teaching, teaching comes from schools where ignorance is banished,” he said.
“Strangers meet and become friends in school. Lifelong friendships are formed in classrooms.
“Segregated education prevents this cross culture and promotes unfamiliarity. Surely a rich culture is a mixture. This book could change a whole generation’s point of view.”
Progress in the North
Senator Ian Marshall, the first Unionist Senator to be elected to Seanad Éireann, recalled that when he was a youngster, growing up in south Armagh, the area that he call home was in the “eye in the storm” during the Troubles.
“It is a changed place and a safer place compared to the place it was then. My 88 year-old mother, who was a teacher for 36 years, believes this [the peace process] will still take a few generations,” he said.
“Peace is like the seasons and the winter changes into spring and summer. We are all products of the place we grew up in. With that come conscious and unconscious bias, opinions and perspectives on things.
“That doesn’t always mean it is right or wrong. What is more important is that we don’t impose our values set on the younger generation.
After watching the “Lost Lives” documentary about the impact of 17 random murders of catholics and prostestants during the Troubles, his children who are 25, 26 and 27 said this was a terrible time to live in Northern Ireland and his oldest daughter pointed out this is “history”.
His son, 25, who is a protestant Presbyterian was the best man at the wedding of his friend in Meath, who is not a Presbyterian, where all the congregation was mixed, which is a metaphor for where Northern Ireland is moving to.
Determined Author
Brussels-based communications and educational professional,Dr Victoria Bruce told the audience that Mr Rice’s partner, Kathleen always says when he has an idea for a book, he is like a “dog with a bone”.
“He tells everyone about his great idea, reads everything he can get his hands on, knocks on every door, contacts anyone who might know anything about the topic, pesters everyone to get involved whether it is about priests and celibacy or nuclear power stations, Nazi resistors, mindfulness and now integrated education in Northern Ireland,” she said.
“Even if David pesters everyone, no one minds, because he is always generous with his knowledge and whatever he learns, he passes it on through conversations, his books or teaching.
“When David started talking about integrated education in Northern Ireland, we all knew this dog would not let go of this very important bone.
“Despite a hip replacement, Covid-19, health scares or the minor issue that old age might get in his way. When David asked me to contribute a chapter, I knew he would pester me until I did,” Dr Victoria Bruce said of David Rice.
Last year, Dr Bruce visited Srebrenica, a sleepy mountain town in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of her work.
In July 1995, Dr Bruce recalled this region was forever scarred when 8,000 Bosniak Muslims were systematically murdered by Bosnian Serb forces in Europe’s worst massacre since World War Two.
Thirty years later, as Serbian nationalism increases, schools are divided to cater for Bosnia, Croat and Serb students.
However, one place she visited offers great hope – The ‘House of Good Tones’ founded in 2011, providea artistic, cultural, training and entertainment programmes for local children within a multi-ethnic environment.
Unlike many of the other goodwill projects that mushroomed in this region after the genocide, and have since faded away, the House of Good Tones is still going strong and, to date, more than 2,000 children have passed through its doors.
Prolific Author
The former Dominican friar has written twelve books in total including the number one best-selling ‘Shattered Vows’, which was translated into German and prompted a Channel Four television documentary that he also directed.
His interest in photography was fostered at age 16 while he was a student in Clongowes Wood College.
In the 1970s, he was a photo-journalist in the United States, where he also worked as an editor and Sigma-Delta Chi award-winning syndicated columnist.
After this he returned to Ireland in 1980 to direct the Rathmines School of Journalism in Dublin.
In 1989, he was invited to Beijing by London’s Thomson Foundation to train journalists on behalf of Xin Hua, the Chinese government news agency.
He was in Beijing during the massacre of Tiananmen Square and later returned to secretly interview 400 of the young people who had survived the massacre.
This resulted in the unfortunate attention of the Chinese security police. His photographs from the Tiananmen Square protest were published by Harper Collins in “The Dragon’s Brood”.
His later novel, “Song of Tiananmen Square”, tells the full story of the massacre.
His other ten books have been published in Britain, Ireland, Germany, Italy and the United States of America.
In addition to teaching writing skills at the University of Limerick, he directed the highly successful Killaloe Hedge-School of Writing for 18 years.
The successful school was was the brainchild of his partner, Kathleen.
East Clare correspondent, Dan Danaher is a journalism graduate of Rathmines and UL. He has won numerous awards for special investigations on health, justice, environment, and reports on news, agriculture, disability, mental health and community.