The conflict in the North

Now, only a fool would attempt to suggest that religion was the sole cause of the ongoing strife which has been a feature of life in the Northern part of this country for centuries, and which has directly led to the killing of over 3,000 people since it exploded into fully fledged armed conflict just over 25 years ago. But it surely flies in the face of reason to suggest that it is a matter of complete irrelevance to the bloodshed.

Right now, it is impossible to get people from both sides of the divide to sit down at a table together even, to talk constructively about the future. We are engaged in a seemingly endless process of talking about talks – I can’t even write the phrase down without having a laugh. But as the death toll mounts, the grim underlying reality is, genuinely, tragic.

This inability to reach out across what is essentially a sectarian and cultural divide cannot be divorced from the fact that only 1% of Northern Irish children are currently being educated in an integrated environment, alongside children of other ‘faiths’. The number of integrated schools has been crawling upwards since the early ’80s – there are now almost 20 at primary level but only six at the more critical second level. The ones who oppose the process of integration in education most violently are the Churches – Catholic on the one side, and Protestant on the other. I don’t think there is any ambiguity about their motives – all are equally guilty. It is to do with power. Schools have traditionally been a recruiting ground for religions. Control of the schools is regarded as being vital to the process of indoctrination, indulged in by both Catholics and Protestants. If you lose control of the schools, you lose members. And then you lose money, and influence, and ultimately, power. In resisting integrated schooling the Churches are fighting for their own vested interests. But there should be no evasiveness about our reading of the impact of their actions in this regard: in doing so, they are clearly contributing to prolonging the violence, by perpetuating sectarianism. And I believe that they know it, and that they choose to do it because their own power and privilege is of paramount concern to them.

I know that there are twisted histories involved but in everything that really matters, in August of 1994, the people of the Falls Road and the Shankill Road have as much in common with one another as do the separate communities of Darndale and Killinarden in Dublin. But the common cause which they do share in so many respects will never be allowed to surface as long as the old divisions are re-inforced in separate, sectarian schools from the time that kids are ready to learn to read and write and sing – and pray . . .

It is only a part of the jigsaw, but in the long term it is potentially an important one. The Churches – all of them – should be told that the State will fund State schools only, with integrated boards of management and a curriculum which genuinely reflects the complexity of the Northern experience. It won’t stem the bloodshed now – but it might just minimise it in ten years time.

• Niall Stokes

Editor

• The Phantom has been held over due to space limitations – its page was usurped by Neil McCormick’s lengthy reflections over the life and times of the General, Martin Cahill.