The Struggle for Shared Schools in Northern Ireland: The History of All Children Together
Description
Starting out as a small but energetic and, above all, committed group of parents in County Down in the early 1970s, All Children Together (ACT) believed that, as long as children continued to be educated separately, there was little hope of healing the festering wounds in a society blighted by bitter division. This is the story of the pioneers of the integrated education movement in Northern Ireland.
The book chronicles how ACT faced powerful establishment resistance ' both clerical and lay ' to a vision that would see children of all religions and no religion educated together.
At the political level it describes how, crucially, ACT persuaded Westminster to pass enabling legislation in 1978. Then, in 1981, came the great leap of faith with the establishment of what would become the flagship of the movement, Lagan College, with a mere 28 pupils. Thereafter ACT embarked on a programme to convince government to make funds available to parent groups, wishing to do so, to found integrated schools. Despite frequent setbacks the movement developed at an impressive pace until, by September 2008, there were 19,183 pupils in 62 schools in every part of Northern Ireland.
Jonathan Bardon has spoken to many of those involved from the outset in the campaigns for shared schools, and trawled through reports, newspapers, the unpublished records of ACT and government files recently opened under the 30-year rule. What emerges is a remarkable tale of determination, tenacity, courage, dedication and, above all, vision by ordinary men and women from both sides of the religious divide. Their example moved Lord Mawhinney to describe them as 'among the first genuine peace people'. Indeed, it could be said that no account of the Troubles is complete if it omits the story of All Children Together, a story that has given Northern Ireland a platform on which to build a post-conflict society based on respect for all traditions and religions.
Contents
Preface: Dr Mary Robinson
Introduction: The Rt Hon. the Lord Mawhinney
Chapters
- Failing to educate all children together
- McIvor's shared-schools plan, 1974
- The formation of All Children Together
- Direct-rule dilemmas
- All Children Together challenges the status quo
- Lagan College
- St Bede's School, Lagan College and shared religious-education syllabi
- Strains of growth
- The saga of Forge
- The Mawhinney breakthrough
- The closing years
Epilogue: The long view: Donald Akenson
Appendix 1: Some milestones before the conflict
Appendix 2: Letter informing principals of meeting regarding Sunday-school classes for Catholic children, 1973
Appendix 3: Speech made by Bettie Benton at the peace meeting in Grosvenor Hall, Belfast on 11 September 1974
Appendix 4: Letter to Catholic parents asking them to consider making ACT interdenominational, 1974
Appendix 5: Recommendation passed at close of one-day seminar on interdenominational schools, Saturday, 30 November 1974
Appendix 6: ACT submissions to the Department of Education and Science in Westminster and other bodies, 1977-2000
Appendix 7: Opinion polls on community choice regarding intergrated schools in Northern Ireland, 1967-2008
Appendix 8: Main provisions of the Education (Northern Ireland) Act 1978
Appendix 9: Integrated schools:ACT appeals to the churches, june 1978
Appendix 10: ACT milestones
Appendix 11: 'ACT on shared schools': an All Children Together discussion document, June 1976
Appendix 12: Response to the Churches' Religious-Education Core-Curriculum Drafting Group, November 1990
Appendix 13: Enrolments in integrated schools in Northern Ireland, September, 2008
Appendix 14: ACT seminars and conferences, 1974-99
Appendix 15: An international list of joint Roman Catholic-Anglican schools and third-level colleges
Appendix 16: Forge directors' diary of developments, 1990-2
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
Bibliography
Notes
Index