SAOIRSE32

By Kathryn Torney
Belfast Telegraph
Monday, 8 September 2008

The Executive should set up schools jointly managed by the Catholic and Protestant churches according to a new survey, the Belfast Telegraph can reveal today.

The Education Minister today faced fresh calls to establish joint faith schools after a survey showed that over two thirds (67%) of parents and grandparents of children of school age or yet to start school would support this move.

Last year, the Belfast Telegraph reported that representatives from the Catholic and Protestant churches and school principals had travelled together to visit inter-church schools in Liverpool.

Schools jointly managed by the main churches would be a radical move in Northern Ireland if given the go-ahead by church leaders and Government.

Currently, maintained schools are owned and managed by the Catholic Church, while controlled schools are owned by the education boards with the three main Protestant churches key stakeholders in their management.

The Telegraph can reveal that the survey, which was commissioned by the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE) and carried out by Millard Brown, also found that

43% of the respondents would prefer their children or grandchildren to attend an integrated school.

Of those whose children or grandchildren had never attended an integrated school, 38% said this was because there were no places available in their local integrated school or no integrated schools in their area.

A massive 79% of the respondents also supported schools sharing facilities with nearby schools, even if they were in a different school sector, and 84% of those questioned believe that integrated education is important for peace and reconciliation in Northern Ireland.

Over 1,000 people were approached for the survey with most of the questions addressed to a representative sample of those with children or grandchildren aged under 19 still at school or college or not yet started, of which there were 478.

Representatives from the Catholic and Protestant Churches said they support a closer relationship between their sectors and called for research to be carried out into the prospect of joint faith-based schools being developed here.

Rev Ian Ellis, secretary to the Church of Ireland Board of Education NI and secretary to the Transferor Representatives’ Council (a council with a membership from the Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Methodist churches), said the council supported all possibilities for sharing in education — including arrangements between schools, shared staff, shared facilities and the possible creation of some joint faith-based schools.

“The Millward Brown survey indicates that 67% of the sample of parent and grandparents support the establishment of jointly managed schools. This is a very encouraging response,” he continued.

“However, it is not possible to transplant the idea and approach of joint management without careful adaptation to the context of the Northern Ireland system of education.”

Bishop Donal McKeown, chair of the Northern Ireland Commission for Catholic Education, said: “Obviously any proposals for new forms of joint church engagement would have to come from the churches themselves. However, we are very keen to find creative and home-grown solutions.”

Michael Wardlow, NICIE chief executive officer, said: “The strong support for new initiatives, such as shared management schools by the Catholic and Protestant churches, sends an encouraging message to our church leaders.”

In response, Caitriona Ruane said: “As Education Minister I have a statutory duty to encourage and facilitate the integrated sector. I recognise and value the important role integrated education has in bringing children from different communities together and will study the findings of this new survey.”

RTÉ
7 September 2008 22:00

Five people are in custody following the seizure of 17.5kgs of commercial explosives in Galway yesterday.

Gardaí from the Galway West Division and National Support Units made the discovery as part of an ongoing operation against organised crime.

The first three arrests were made in the Oranmore area after Gardaí intercepted a car in which a quantity of explosives was discovered.

More explosives were found during a follow up at the rear of a house near the village.

A short time later two other people were detained in Headford.

The four men and one woman are currently being held at garda stations in Gort and Loughrea.

They range in age from 25 to 33, and are being held under Section 30 of the Offences Against the State Act 1939.

Gardaí say they are treating the seizure as significant.

1968-2008: President McAleese to address international conference on Civil Rights anniversary

THE original route of the world-famous Civil Rights march of October 1968 will be retraced next month as part of a weekend of events in Derry including an international conference addressed by President Mary McAleese. The conference, in Derry City’s Guildhall over Saturday and Sunday, 4-5 October, will also hear other speakers, including Kadar Asmal, Professor of Human Rights at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, and deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness. The march takes place on the Saturday.

DALE MOORE looks back at the original Civil Rights march and its significance for the struggle for justice and equality 40 years on.

An Phoblacht
4 September 2008

ON 5 October 1968, a Civil Rights march gathered on Duke Street in Derry’s Waterside area to walk to Derry’s Guildhall. The marches demanded very basic civil liberties such as one person/one vote, the right to work, and proper housing.
In any normal society these are rights were usually taken for granted but in the six-county statelet, under unionist control, to demand these basic rights threatened the very fabric of the society formed out of partition.

Image from the Museum of Free Derry

Formed in 1921, it clearly stated that this was a Protestant parliament for a Protestant people where Catholics were treated as second-class citizens who had no civil rights and this was no more so than in Derry.
Derry, which had a majority nationalist population, was ruled through gerrymandering by a unionist corporation where the vast majority of its Catholic citizens were forced to live in electoral wards that elected fewer councillors than the minority Protestant population.
These nationalist wards were overcrowded to a point where several families lived together in two-bedroom or three-bedroom houses and where male unemployment was rife.
This was endemic of the problem of this statelet where the Unionist Party and Orange Order reigned supreme. Any challenge to the status quo was met with the full might of the RUC and the B-Specials, the unionist-dominated, armed militia.
Throughout the 1960s, across the North a more educated population was emerging that was inspired by the American civil rights protests and people decided to take a stand.
The Civil Rights Association was formed and a march was planned for Derry on 5 October to highlight their grievances. The Stormont Government moved quickly to ban the march. The organisers decided to go ahead and the RUC turned up in force to prevent it going ahead.
As on previous occasions where the authority of the state had been challenged, the RUC attacked the marchers.
However, this time a large media presence with relatively new technology for the time meant the scenes of peaceful civil rights marchers being attacked by the RUC were broadcast across the globe, exposing the brutal nature of the Unionist Party state, in Western Europe and under British rule. There would be no putting the genie back into the bottle and the rest, as they say, is history.
As we approach the 40th anniversary of that historical event in Derry, we should not delude ourselves that civil rights are now part and parcel of everyday life. Every day, across the island, someone is suffering, whether it be through racial violence, domestic violence, homophobia or oppressive state legislation or action.
Basic housing, healthcare and education is becoming more and more the preserve of the wealthy as the rights and opportunities of the working class are eroded.
Sinn Féin, however, will continue to fight and ensure that the equality agenda is to the fore of our political revolution. We are determined that all the children of the nation are treated equally. We are encouraging everyone to not only participate in the weekend of Civil Rights events but to make equality the watchword by which they live their lives.