Debrief

We’ve been told that this election was finally about the real issues – education, health, jobs, transport….although the low turnout suggests the voters are sceptical about the possibility of change. (more…)

By Tony Macauley

The latest MORI poll into attitudes to integrated education, once again finds that the vast majority, around 9 out of 10 people, are in favour of integrated education in Northern Ireland. It’s no big surprise. Similar polls have shown the same result, consistently for many years now. (more…)

By Malachi O’Doherty

The findings of the Mori poll into attitudes to Integrated Education are astonishing.The easy assumption about how Northern Ireland works is that most people prefer things as they are. Parents choose the schools to send their children to, and if their choice is sectarian, then the presumption must be that they are sectarian, that a priority in education is that children should be raised uncontaminated by the influence of the Other. (more…)

by Susan Whitla

“This House would only fund integrated education.”

This was the rather controversial motion debated on Friday 4^th March by a mixture of MLA’s, students from both The Historical Society (Trinity College Dublin) and Debating Society (Queen’s University Belfast). (more…)

It now looks like publication of the Executive’s anti-sectarianism strategy will be delayed until after May’s Assembly election.  A draft Programme for Cohesion, Sharing and Integration (CSI) was put out to public consultation last summer.  That discussion document was itself the product of two years bickering between political parties, in particular Sinn Féin and the DUP. (more…)