Northern Ireland’s schools are slowly becoming less segregated

WHEN THE autumn term starts, a school at the north-eastern edge of Northern Ireland will make a little piece of history. Seaview Primary in Glenarm, a coastal village where the accents are a constant reminder of the nearness of Scotland, will become the province’s first to leave the Catholic education system run independently from the state and overseen by Catholic bishops. The little school will become “integrated”, seeking to draw pupils and teachers from both sides of the province’s sectarian divide. Liam Neeson, a film star who grew up nearby and who now holds American citizenship, praised his former compatriots for “taking courageous steps to ensure that children from different traditions will get to learn and play together, every day, in the same school”.