A United Ireland. Opening up the discussion.

[Milltown Row2]

Irrelevant figures. Whether it's SF or DUP with the greater votes, they still won't agree on nothing.

There's a million unionists in the North or near it. Do you think they're just going to go away overnight?

If they're as democratic as they tell us they are then they'll accept the will of the voting public.

A bit like Brexit?

To an extent, yes.

One side views the will of the people the entire UK and the other side view the Brexit vote as being the will of the 6 counties.

It's all about boundaries and how well gerrymandered they are 

Look if its the will of the people then it will happen, doesnt mean everyone will thinks its a good idea, just 50.00001 % (if thats an actual % figure) need to, as for the boundaries it wouldnt matter as such!

[charlieTully]

I sent my eldest son to an integrated college. He felt it was balanced enough but his main regret was the lack of Gaelic games available. There just wasn't enough players to get anything meaningful going . I have a lad in p6 who wants to go to the local Catholic comprehensive school as they won Ulster titles at u14 and u16 and he wants the football.

[BennyCake]

Will of the people, me hole. There was majority support for Home Rule over a century ago. Did it happen?

If there's a border poll, and 51% for a UI, one million unionists will just quietly accept it?

[Milltown Row2]

I sent my eldest son to an integrated college. He felt it was balanced enough but his main regret was the lack of Gaelic games available. There just wasn't enough players to get anything meaningful going . I have a lad in p6 who wants to go to the local Catholic comprehensive school as they won Ulster titles at u14 and u16 and he wants the football.

Would it not be a good idea for the intergrated schools to for a partnership with the other schools for sports? Gaelic football hurling rugby and soccer?

[BennyCake]

I sent my eldest son to an integrated college. He felt it was balanced enough but his main regret was the lack of Gaelic games available. There just wasn't enough players to get anything meaningful going . I have a lad in p6 who wants to go to the local Catholic comprehensive school as they won Ulster titles at u14 and u16 and he wants the football.

Integrated education is a dilution of anything Irish. As you say, GAA suffers, as will the teaching of Irish history, culture, language etc. These things thrive in catholic schools.

Integrated education is balls. The North is a divided society, people live apart and integrated education won't change that.

[Milltown Row2]

I sent my eldest son to an integrated college. He felt it was balanced enough but his main regret was the lack of Gaelic games available. There just wasn't enough players to get anything meaningful going . I have a lad in p6 who wants to go to the local Catholic comprehensive school as they won Ulster titles at u14 and u16 and he wants the football.

Integrated education is a dilution of anything Irish. As you say, GAA suffers, as will the teaching of Irish history, culture, language etc. These things thrive in catholic schools.

Integrated education is balls. The North is a divided society, people live apart and integrated education won't change that.

So you'd prefer to drive the wedge further rather than dealing with intergraded education of Irish history and games? Improve on that aspect and come to an arrangement with the topics, Irish History up to fith year was for me was, The Famine, Vicking raids, the Blitz of Belfast.. struggling to remember now if we did anything on 1916 or the troubles, doubt it.. a lot of the World wars mainly and the usual crap at first year on castles ffs!

In our school also you either did Irish or French, you didnt choose either as it was just the luck of the draw, I'd say it didnt dilute the Irishness of the kids that went to the school. As for hurling and football we learnt more at the club than school.. That was a typical Falls road school, I even knew schools that didnt have a Gaa team in them

[AQMP]

I sent my eldest son to an integrated college. He felt it was balanced enough but his main regret was the lack of Gaelic games available. There just wasn't enough players to get anything meaningful going . I have a lad in p6 who wants to go to the local Catholic comprehensive school as they won Ulster titles at u14 and u16 and he wants the football.

Integrated education is a dilution of anything Irish. As you say, GAA suffers, as will the teaching of Irish history, culture, language etc. These things thrive in catholic schools.

Integrated education is balls. The North is a divided society, people live apart and integrated education won't change that.

Integrated education is part of the solution in NI but by no means the be all and end all that it is sometimes held up to be.

[BennyCake]

MR2, I'm not saying drive the wedge further.

Two lads are schoolmates. Is the catholic lad comfortable going to his Protestant mates estate adorned with UVF murals, Union flags, painted kerbstones, rangers shirts? Is he comfortable with having a kick around surrounding by that? Are his parents confit table with it? And vice versa for the Protestant lad.

In a neutral environment it's ok, but integrated education ain't going to solve the fact that we are two tribes, totally different in most aspects and way of thinking.

I'm not saying give up totally. But the politics and politicans here have a lot to answer for. Their aim is to keep everything divided, create division and that filters down to both sides. That includes local councillors, MPs, Stormont and Westminster MPs and the British and Irish government.

[johnnycool]

I sent my eldest son to an integrated college. He felt it was balanced enough but his main regret was the lack of Gaelic games available. There just wasn't enough players to get anything meaningful going . I have a lad in p6 who wants to go to the local Catholic comprehensive school as they won Ulster titles at u14 and u16 and he wants the football.

Integrated education is a dilution of anything Irish. As you say, GAA suffers, as will the teaching of Irish history, culture, language etc. These things thrive in catholic schools.

Integrated education is balls. The North is a divided society, people live apart and integrated education won't change that.

Integrated education is part of the solution in NI but by no means the be all and end all that it is sometimes held up to be.

It depends on how integrated that education is all the same.

I find that GAA is an afterschools activity in the one secondary/comprehensive nearest me, but somehow soccer, rugby and hockey are part of the timetabled PE classes.

The general perception down our way is that schools turn integrated when the numbers are low to keep them open but the ethos doesn't seem to change much.
One of the integrated primary schools near us is informed via email when we're running fundamentals blocks for the P1's and P2's and the principal has never passed that information onto the parents of the kids in the school yet the local tennis club is never done getting stuff sent home in the kids schoolbags!

Maybe I'm paranoid...

[Milltown Row2]

I sent my eldest son to an integrated college. He felt it was balanced enough but his main regret was the lack of Gaelic games available. There just wasn't enough players to get anything meaningful going . I have a lad in p6 who wants to go to the local Catholic comprehensive school as they won Ulster titles at u14 and u16 and he wants the football.

Integrated education is a dilution of anything Irish. As you say, GAA suffers, as will the teaching of Irish history, culture, language etc. These things thrive in catholic schools.

Integrated education is balls. The North is a divided society, people live apart and integrated education won't change that.

Integrated education is part of the solution in NI but by no means the be all and end all that it is sometimes held up to be.

It depends on how integrated that education is all the same.

I find that GAA is an afterschools activity in the one secondary/comprehensive nearest me, but somehow soccer, rugby and hockey are part of the timetabled PE classes.

The general perception down our way is that schools turn integrated when the numbers are low to keep them open but the ethos doesn't seem to change much.
One of the integrated primary schools near us is informed via email when we're running fundamentals blocks for the P1's and P2's and the principal has never passed that information onto the parents of the kids in the school yet the local tennis club is never done getting stuff sent home in the kids schoolbags!

Maybe I'm paranoid...

Look we all know what drives certain sports in schools, if the local club gets involved (my excuse) and picks kids up sorts out sticks, balls and the like, its a win win for the local club as they can filter them into the club, the other is a teacher who is really interested in getting Gaa going in the school, has a passion for it also, principal is looking at budgets and results, nothing else..

It also needs people after school to help out, parents who have the time on their hands to help and extra funding from the education board and of course a set of kids willing to play.. I'm talking primary here as that is were the intrest is started .. secondary then needs to have the same thing, oter benefits are a history of GAA sports and so on..

Now what needs to happen is that in intergrated schools a joined up approach needs to be applied, and all of the intergrated schools should have this as part of their approval to become a proper intergrated school, regardless of the flegs and drawings on the walls, though to be fair there is not much of that about in places of intergration...

[seafoid]

I sent my eldest son to an integrated college. He felt it was balanced enough but his main regret was the lack of Gaelic games available. There just wasn't enough players to get anything meaningful going . I have a lad in p6 who wants to go to the local Catholic comprehensive school as they won Ulster titles at u14 and u16 and he wants the football.

Integrated education is a dilution of anything Irish. As you say, GAA suffers, as will the teaching of Irish history, culture, language etc. These things thrive in catholic schools.

Integrated education is balls. The North is a divided society, people live apart and integrated education won't change that.

It's a polarised society. The national anthem only reflects half of the population. There are 2 versions of history. There are 2 identities. It's very hard to write schoolbooks for polarised societies.

[paddyjohn]

I sent my eldest son to an integrated college. He felt it was balanced enough but his main regret was the lack of Gaelic games available. There just wasn't enough players to get anything meaningful going . I have a lad in p6 who wants to go to the local Catholic comprehensive school as they won Ulster titles at u14 and u16 and he wants the football.

Integrated education is a dilution of anything Irish. As you say, GAA suffers, as will the teaching of Irish history, culture, language etc. These things thrive in catholic schools.

Integrated education is balls. The North is a divided society, people live apart and integrated education won't change that.

Integrated education is part of the solution in NI but by no means the be all and end all that it is sometimes held up to be.

It depends on how integrated that education is all the same.

I find that GAA is an afterschools activity in the one secondary/comprehensive nearest me, but somehow soccer, rugby and hockey are part of the timetabled PE classes.

The general perception down our way is that schools turn integrated when the numbers are low to keep them open but the ethos doesn't seem to change much.
One of the integrated primary schools near us is informed via email when we're running fundamentals blocks for the P1's and P2's and the principal has never passed that information onto the parents of the kids in the school yet the local tennis club is never done getting stuff sent home in the kids schoolbags!

Maybe I'm paranoid...

Look we all know what drives certain sports in schools, if the local club gets involved (my excuse) and picks kids up sorts out sticks, balls and the like, its a win win for the local club as they can filter them into the club, the other is a teacher who is really interested in getting Gaa going in the school, has a passion for it also, principal is looking at budgets and results, nothing else..

It also needs people after school to help out, parents who have the time on their hands to help and extra funding from the education board and of course a set of kids willing to play.. I'm talking primary here as that is were the intrest is started .. secondary then needs to have the same thing, oter benefits are a history of GAA sports and so on..

Now what needs to happen is that in intergrated schools a joined up approach needs to be applied, and all of the intergrated schools should have this as part of their approval to become a proper intergrated school, regardless of the flegs and drawings on the walls, though to be fair there is not much of that about in places of intergration...

https://www.colerainetimes.co.uk/news/education/boys-are-under-pressure-to-play-gaa-at-ballymoney-high-school-1-8386941

I also know a parent who refused to let his son play hurling at an integrated school in Ballymena. Ended up taking his son out of the school.

Sad sad people imo.

[blewuporstuffed]

Mr Watton explained parents' concerns with the GAA, saying: "I have no problem with the GAA. It is what it is, but the GAA has a problem in working-class unionist areas. People living in these estates never had anything to do with the GAA, and the GAA never had anything to do with them.

Read more at: https://www.colerainetimes.co.uk/news/education/boys-are-under-pressure-to-play-gaa-at-ballymoney-high-school-1-8386941

So the solution to this is to object to a GAA / school initiative to reach out to those communities? 

[Franko]

I sent my eldest son to an integrated college. He felt it was balanced enough but his main regret was the lack of Gaelic games available. There just wasn't enough players to get anything meaningful going . I have a lad in p6 who wants to go to the local Catholic comprehensive school as they won Ulster titles at u14 and u16 and he wants the football.

Integrated education is a dilution of anything Irish. As you say, GAA suffers, as will the teaching of Irish history, culture, language etc. These things thrive in catholic schools.

Integrated education is balls. The North is a divided society, people live apart and integrated education won't change that.

Yes, education may harm the GAA from a schools perspective but I believe it's a price that needs paying.  The opportunity is there for anyone who wants to learn Irish history (schools are quite welcome to choose what way subjects are taught and to offer more than one option) or speak the language and also to play Gaelic Games if that's what they want to do.  An ILA will further enable this.

The bit in bold is totally false IMO.  Generally, the first time someone from the north has any major interaction with themmuns is at university or when they enter the world of work.  They've already formed a social circle at that stage, and almost exclusively, it's made up of uss'uns.  Kids need to learn that themmuns aren't to be frightened of in their formative years.

[Therealdonald]

I agree wholeheartedly with the school system at the minute. How many children from both sides come out of school and are able to integrate into a mixed workplace just fine? As with most things there would be too much aggro associated...consider round Remembrance Day (Poppies), will Easter Lily's be acceptable? No learning of Irish, and the History lessons would be completely warped.

Strangely I seen an earlier post blaming Sinn Fein for the current system...Go figure