Sir, - The UUP spokesman Ken Maginnis said on Vincent Browne's radio programme that it was curious for Mo Mowlam to deliver an important speech concerning the future of the peace process to schoolchildren in Carrickfergus rather than to a substantive body such as a chamber of commerce. He neglected to say that the school in question was Ulidia Integrated College.
Where better to make a speech about the future of Northern Ireland? And how interesting that Mo Mowlam should make it in a school which her government has to date refused to fund. Ulidia, in a predominantly Protestant area, has 216 pupils. It is funded by a variety of outside partners including the parents and in its third year of operation is, not surprisingly, still struggling to hold onto the appropriate pupil ratio.
This task would not be so difficult if the SDLP, UUP, UKU and DUP officially supported integrated education. They do not; but despite their incomprehensible attitude there are now 13,000 pupils in integrated schools, of which 43 per cent are Protestant and 42 per cent Catholic.
Because 43 of these schools have proven themselves they now receive government funding but Ulidia does not, because the British government has so far refused to accept that the school could attract sufficient Catholics in the longer term. The religious balance of the people of Carrickfergus is unlikely to change dramatically to allow for equal representation in the classroom in the foreseeable future.
But unfortunately flexibility in regulations governing schools funding is denied by the NIO because of inbuilt prejudice and the absence of pressure from political or church leaders. Hopefully, Mo Mowlam, having visited Ulidia, will decide that her government should reflect in policy the enlightened support for integrated education shown by the Alliance Party, the PUP, Sinn Fein, the UDP, the Women's Coalition and the Workers' Party. Indeed, integrated education is mentioned specifically on page 18 of the Good Friday Agreement: "An essential aspect of the reconciliation process is the promotion of a culture of tolerance at every level of society and includes initiatives to facilitate and encourage Integrated Education and mixed housing."
It is ironic and revealing that the small political parties in Northern Ireland support integrated education while the large parties do not. Meanwhile, the Irish Government deems it inappropriate to use channels available to it to assist a movement which has huge potential to achieve the meaningful reconciliation necessary to ensure that the future governance of Northern Ireland will be fair and equitable to all its citizens. - Yours, etc.,
Declan MacPartlin, Camolin, Enniscorthy, Co Wexford.