The Integrated Education Fund (IEF) is a financial
foundation for the development and growth of
integrated education in Northern Ireland
ACT Book Launch 01/02/2010
A History of the Struggle for Shared Schools in Northern Ireland
A major new work from renowned historian Jonathan Bardon entitled "The Struggle for Shared Schools in Northern Ireland: The History of All Children Together" was launched by former Minister of State for Northern Ireland, Lord Mawhinney at Belfast Central Library.
The book chronicles how All Children Together (ACT), the founding movement for integrated education in Northern Ireland, started in 1972 in the face of 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 for schools to become integrated. Then, in 1981, came the great leap of faith with the establishment of what would become the flagship of the movement, LaganCollege, which opened with a mere 28 pupils.
Thereafter ACT embarked on a programme to convince government to make funds available to groups of parents who wished to found integrated schools. Despite frequent setbacks the Integrated Movement developed at an impressive pace until, by September 2009, there were over 20,000 pupils in 61 schools all over 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of those involved from the outset in the campaigns for shared schools, and trawled through reports, newspapers, the unpublished records of ACT and government files recently opened under the 30-year rule.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.
The Preface is written by Dr Mary Robinson, formerly President of Ireland and UN Commissioner for Human Rights; the Introduction by the Conservative peer, Lord Mawhinney, a native born Belfast man and Minister of State with responsibility for Education in Northern Ireland in the 1980s and early 1990s; and the Epilogue by Professor Donald Harmon Akenson, an internationally acclaimed scholar and author who is considered the world´s foremost authority on the Irish Diaspora. He is Professor of History at Queen´s University, Ontario, Canada, and was also a Beamish Research Professor in the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool from 1998-2002. The book is being published by the Ulster Historical Foundation.
