Plans for a new approach to educate children from Catholic, Protestant and other backgrounds together in Northern Ireland.
Minister for Education in Northern Ireland Basil McIvor announced his intention to look for new ways to bring about integrated education.
Ways by which Catholics and Protestants in the North could share schools.
Unionist minister Basil McIvor acknowledged that the plans could face opposition, especially from the Catholic church who are completely against such an approach to education.
Parish Priest of Saint John's in the Fall's area of Belfast, Canon Padraig Murphy described Basil McIvor's plans as naive and ill-informed. Reaction from other churches was generally in favour.
In the Republic of Ireland, leader of the Fianna Fáil party Jack Lynch welcomed the statement from Basil McIvor.
While these plans for change continue in Northern Ireland, controversy continues over a mixed school in Dalkey, County Dublin. Saint Patrick's National School under Church of Ireland management decided some years past to welcome children of all denominations and none to their classrooms. The idea was the national schools should not be sectarian and should be open to all. The school has grown from around fifty Church of Ireland pupils fifteen years ago to around two hundred pupils now with only around half of them Church of Ireland. However, the school is now under new management and along with the Department of Education believes it should be just a school for Protestant children.
Catholic children should be sent to Catholic schools.
The views of some children in Northern Ireland filmed some years earlier in Belfast is an indication of the challenges of providing integrated education.
This episode of 'Seven Days' was broadcast on 10 May 1974. The presenter is Ted Nealon.
