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Forge Integrated
Primary School
No longer on opposite sides of the fence,
they'll
look beyond it and scale it together.
Maeve: Sometimes
we play I Spy.
Emma: I spy with my little eye something beginning
with “M”:
Maeve!
Maeve (laughing): And I like playing at my house
with my horsies.
Emma: Sometimes I visit her house.
Maeve: We’re not sisters, we’re friends.
Maeve’s parents come from different traditions,
one Protestant, the other Catholic. Emma’s are
Catholic. But the girls don’t see their differences,
except perhaps that one has blonde hair and the other
brown. Or that one is wearing pink sneakers today,
the other a sundress.
And that’s the point of Integrated Education.
Before the damaging biases of previous
generations can sink in, before differences can become
defining, children are brought together simply as children.
They learn, they play, they become friends.
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Peace
Players (Playing for Peace)
“It’s simple and it works.” — Brendan Tuohey, Director
Start with a team sport.Now make it one that has no connection
to the Protestant or Catholic communities. One that features
the jump shot, dribbling, and tackling. Tackling? It’s
what we would call stealing (and playing defense in general),
and ten-year-old Jodie says it’s her favorite part
of the game. Sports in Northern Ireland carry unmistakable
associations: rugby and football are mainly played by
people of the Protestant tradition, while Irish football
and hurling are played by Catholics. Having no history
in Northern Ireland gives basketball a leg up, and the
players couldn’t be more enthusiastic.
Ten-year-old Adam thinks the game is “Brilliant.
I’ve been playing for three years, and I’ve
gotten a lot better.”
Coach Kris Cates-Bristol underscores the program’s
broader goal:
“ I think when they get older, they
won’t have the
preconceived notions of the other tradition that maybe
their parents have.”
Brendan Tuohey, who co-founded the organization with
his brother Sean, says they’re hoping
to establish a club league for boys and girls throughout
Northern Ireland, with players competing
on integrated town teams.
“ That’s going to be amazing,” says Tuohey.
• Peace
Players page (more info) >
• Peace
Players Video (11MB) >
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Bunscoil Mhic Reachtain — the
McCracken School
“
These children are our future.” —
Dr. A. J. Hughes, Chairperson, The McCracken Cultural
Society
The revival of the Irish language is relatively new,
and its continued success starts with the little ones.
Pre-schoolers skipping to the stage to receive their
diplomas, then running to show their parents, beam like
most graduates. In this case, though, they’re on
their way to a sense of pride in their heritage.
Keynote speaker Dr. A. J. Hughes, chairperson of The
McCracken Cultural Society, shares
his delight at the school’s growth year after year.
“
These children are our future. They learn
together and share together, give respect and receive
respect.
It’s
a massive achievement.”
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Hazelwood Integrated Schools
“ I
think we can learn a lot from America, where people
of all backgrounds pledge one flag. It’s
important to separate church from state; here, these
traditions have separated people too long.”— Jill Houston, Principal
Integration is all that seniors Danielle and Keara
know, although only six percent of Northern Ireland’s
students attend such schools. Their parents were among
Hazelwood’s founders, so since they entered primary
school, these young women have been part of an educational
movement that’s proven highly successful both
academically and socially. As Keara puts it, “You
may talk to friends who don’t go to schools like
this and you feel that they’re losing out, because
they’re not getting to see the other side and
learn that they are just the same – and that
you can get on with them.”
The school’s high academic standards are complemented
by a curriculum emphasizing citizenship, conflict resolution,
tolerance, the importance of respecting others, and
self-respect.
Principal Jill Houston has reason to be optimistic.
“
These children inspire me at times by their sense
of purpose about how, if they were running the country,
they could bring changes.”
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Belfast Together
The boys are immersed in American culture while getting
to know each other better, and that’s where friendships
really take root.
“
When the boys have a soccer ball at their feet, they
don’t care.
They don’t ask each other ‘Are you a Protestant?’ ‘Are
you a Catholic?’
They just want to play,” says Jim Heaney who, along
with Joe Kincaid, co-founded this cross-community club.
The highlight each year is a tournament in San Diego,
where each host family takes in two boys,
one Catholic, the other Protestant. For 19 days, the
boys are immersed in American culture
while getting to know each other better, and that’s
where friendships really take root.
It may look like any soccer competition, but its potential
goes much deeper.
“The kids don’t realize the big thing that they’re
doing. In years to come, they’ll not be
throwing bricks and bottles at one another; they’ll
probably be shaking hands.” says Heaney.
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Tara Counselling & Personal
Development Centre
Tara is about transcending division of all kinds.
Coming
to understand yourself and deepen compassion for others.
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The Corrymeela Community
Humans seek resolution.
To understand the roots of aggression.
To forgive and be forgiven.
To put conflict to rest.
Many have come to Corrymeela
to begin the healing process.
Most often they are individuals and groups from the
Protestant and Catholic traditions, but the
community extends its reach to anyone in the throes
of conflict or having survived it.
Transformation comes slowly, says David Stevens, the
leader of Corrymeela, but countless participants have
achieved just that. Former paramilitaries have turned
to productive activity, while others who have lost
fathers, brothers, and sons to the Troubles have realized
a kind of peace.
“
You can be talking about events of twenty
or thirty years ago, and [these survivors] are still
traumatized
in a certain sense. So you realize that reconciliation
in this society is slow,” Stevens says, but,
he adds, it is indeed happening, and he’s pleased
that Corrymeela, which is Irish for “hill
of harmony,” is part of it.
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Northern Ireland Children’s
Enterprise
“
The biggest thing that I see young people
getting out of this is confidence.
We’re constantly being flabbergasted by the steps
people are making on their own.” —
Grainne McKenna, Centre Manager
It’s been ten years since Northern Ireland’s
first cease-fire.
For N.I.C.E., that means many of the children they
work with have no knowledge of
the Troubles. They’ve grown up in relative calm.
So the conflicts they consider are abstract:
what are the people in their community like? In the
other community?
What are the myths and how can they be dispelled?
Through these discussions, they become more open-minded,
they meet people they wouldn’t
have met at home, and they discover common interests
in sports, music, art.
Those who are a few years older do have the before-and-after
perspective, and several who
participated in N.I.C.E. programs when they were younger
recently returned to train as leaders.
“
That’s huge for us. You can’t
measure that on an evaluation form,” says Centre Manager Grainne
McKenna.
N.I.C.E. promotes peace and understanding through a
variety of programs, many of which
center on group discussions.
“
Whenever I’m surrounded by young people who are
opening up and talking for the first time in their
lives, being taken seriously as an adult — that’s
when I see peace coming to life,” McKenna says.
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Ulidia Integrated School
In 1997, in a move they felt would help leave the biases
of sectarianism behind, the 63 original
students at East Antrim Integrated College decided to
rename the school. They called it “Ulidia,” Latin
for “Uladh,” which,
from the 5th to the 14th century, was the name for the
region
that would later be known as Ulster. Ironically, this
ancient name, because it is free from
association with either tradition, enables the school
to focus squarely on the future.
Principal Eugene Martin understands the significance
of such symbolism and the promise of
integrated education. Ulidia, he says, is all about understanding
and tolerance, as well as holding
to the highest academic standards.
Ulidia is a haven where incoming Year 8 Catholic and
Protestant students get to know each
other immediately, through a four-day off-site. It’s
where students can safely discuss
difficult issues, from local to international, where
they’re
free to express their opinions, and
are encouraged to listen to those of others.
Although only six percent of Northern Ireland schools
are integrated, seventy to eighty percent of parents
would prefer to send their children to one.
That statistic “surprised us,” Martin says,
and suggests the trend toward integrated education can
only continue.
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Speedwell Trust
What might life be like without Speedwell?
-Nine-year-old Edward says “ it wouldn’t
be very nice, because I like taking a walk around. I
like listening to the wee waterfall
going down.”
At Speedwell, Catholic and Protestant children study
trees, wildflowers, birds, the weather— a
host of environmental programs — as well as social
citizenship.
While they won't take credit directly, Jean Kelly, director,
and teachers Dara Cahalane and
Brenda Rollins speculate that Speedwell's efforts over
the years might have contributed to the
healing of an area that once was the center of deep division.
Serving 20,000 students a year
from 200 member schools, Speedwell's influence on the
children often extends to their parents,
and then to the greater community. Not to mention the
teachers themselves, who also come
from both traditions.
“
We’re all the same at the heels of the hunt, aren’t
we?
Just because we go to a different church, we’re
no different, really,” says Rollins.
Bringing Protestant and Catholic children together is
at the heart of everything Speedwell does.
The aim is to create trust and friendship between them,
Kelly says, adding, “where ignorance
may have prevailed before, there’s a knowledge,
an understanding now.”
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Enniskillen Community Development Project
Running several projects that help address the effects
of unemployment in County Fermanagh, the organization
offers advice and free representation at Welfare
and Industrial Tribunals, among other support services.They’re
young people intent on making a difference. Working
with an adult coach, they meet at youth clubs,
community centers, and schools. They choose a public
issue that matters to them, then they design a plan
and put it into action — doing what they can
to effect change.
Along the way, they learn to take other perspectives
into account. They discover that there are seldom
quick fixes, but that people can work together to
create a just, peaceful, democratic, and pluralistic
society.
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Habitat for Humanity
Jennifer Crockard is a single mother. She’s a community
worker
at an agency in North Belfast. And now she’s a
homeowner in Ballysillan, thanks to Habitat for Humanity.
Raised as a Protestant, she worked with Catholics to
build her house and others on her estate.
As a result, as Habitat intends, relationships were built
as well.
“
I can proudly boast that one of my best friends lives
on the other side.
We worked together, but we didn’t know each other.
Through this, we became best of friends — and these
stories happen all the time,” Crockard says.
In fact, it was this friend, Michelle, who handed Jennifer
the key to her new house at its dedication.
“
The key is a big symbol,” says David Blake, Projects
Manager with Habitat.
“
Historically, these people would burn the
houses of those on the other side.
Now they’re expressing good will to people in the
other community.
That is, I think, a sign of what can be done.”
Jennifer was so moved by the whole experience that she
has deepened her involvement with
the organization by becoming a local Habitat for Humanity
committee member and a volunteer.
She feels proud that she’s been able to share the
knowledge she’s gained with her daughters. “ I
tell them they’re not bad people on the other
side, and teach them not to put a label on other people.”
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