Integrated Catholic/Protestant Schools

In this BBC Radio documentary Educating Ulster (5/29/2014), Andrea Catherwood talks witih students who attend integrated Catholic/Protestant schools in Ulster, Northern Ireland. For families in Northern Ireland, tension between Catholic Unionists and Protestant Loyalists is often still present despite the 1998 Good Friday Agreement which ended the conflict known as The Troubles.

In this documentary, Catherwood states that 1 in 10 new marriages in Northern Ireland are interfaith and that 70% of the people support intergrated schools - yet these schools remain a minority and peace walls still divide neighborhoods into Unionist and Loyalist areas.  One student featured in the documentary,  whose family supports her attending an intergrated school, says that interfaith friendships are fine but her mother would not want her to date outside her culture.

Listen to the radio documentary here.

IMAGE: Peace Wall, Ulster via Clark & Nadia's blog