Meanwhile, on the ground in working-class areas, as Protestants move out or lose heart, as many have done since the Anglo-Irish Agreement, great swathes of Protestant heartland become an educational desert. For example, the Church of Ireland Bishop Dr Samuel Poyntz has said that ‘only 4% passed the Eleven-Plus in 1987. Only ten children passed in 1988… There’s only one secondary school for the whole area, while in the Falls there are plenty. The Shankill is not getting educated, but the Catholics have a good set-up.’47 Nothing in the core values expressed above by the two major Unionist
...more
