Brian Feeney –‘New study shows financial benefits of a united Ireland’ (June 1) – claims that according to economists, professors Seamus McGuinness and Adele Bergin of the Economic and Social Research Institute, the biggest long-term unification costs might be in bringing what unionists claim is the north’s ‘world-class’ education system up to modern standards.
Professor John Fitzgerald, Trinity College Dublin, has warned that the north’s economy needs a devolved government to tackle “the worst educational system in the UK” which he estimates it would take up to 30 years to fix. In 2015 more than a third of the young people in Northern Ireland were educated only to lower secondary level or below and this figure was three to four times higher than the incidence found in the Republic of Ireland. According to McGuinness and Bergin: “It is clear that there is much to concern policy makers in Northern Ireland with regards to levels of educational attainment both compared to GB regions and in particular, the large performance gap that has developed with respect to the Republic of Ireland.” They go on to point out that productivity levels here will continue to lag behind those in the Republic until educational standards here can be significantly improved. And our unionist politicians continue to proclaim the north’s ‘world-class’ education system. When the educationalist Sir Robert Salisbury said that it was an “enduring myth” that Northern Ireland had one of the best education systems in Europe, Ian Paisley accused him of talking Northern Ireland “right into the gutter”.
The only group who pretend we have a ‘world-class’ education system are unionist politicians and even they don’t believe it but what they do know, is that they have a system which primarily benefits an elitist group of which they are part, to the almost total exclusion of the working classes.
Brian Jackson and Dennis Marsden in their 1960s book Education and the Working Class described it as a system that “selects and rejects to rear an elite”.
We don’t need an independent review of education in Northern Ireland, it’s just more ‘policy churn’ – we have all the research we need already, all ignored by unionist politicians. The Transfer Test and Grammar system have to go.
JIM CURRAN
Downpatrick, Co Down
Myopic view of 'Ulster'
Patricia MacBride – ‘For me, Ulster is more than just a place’ (June 2) – presents a myopic view of ‘Ulster’.
While denigrating the unionist/loyalist use of the term ‘Ulster’, Patricia opines that “it’s hard to respect the use of a term that’s geographically inaccurate”.
The linear earthwork variously known as the Dane’s Cast, Dorsey, Worm Ditch and Black Pig’s Dyke (Jonathan Bardon, A history of Ulster, 1992, pp. 11-12) appears to delineate a hard border between the north of Ireland and the south.
A series of three articles by W.F. De Vismes Kane in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, C27, 301-328; C32, 324-332; and C33, 539-563, first drew attention to the extent of this earthwork that stretches more than 90 miles from Newry in the east across to Bundoran in the west.
This is far longer than Hadrian’s Wall (73 miles) and the Antonine Wall (36.5 miles) that divide Great Britain.
Archaeological research continues apace (see: blackpigsdyke.ie).
But, perhaps the most significant data to date, dendrochronological research by Professor Mike Baillie revealed that the palisade atop The Dorsey, where Bardon observes that the earthwork alone measured eight metres, had been felled in 95 BC, which coincided with the felling date of the central post of the 40-metre structure at Emain Macha outside Armagh (see: Mulholland, Navan Fort, Ireland, 2021).
This 2,000-year-old fortification roughly delineates the border separating Northern Ireland from the Republic of Ireland.
Those wanting to enrich their knowledge of this remarkable part of the island of Ireland could do worse than read the journal Emania by the Navan Research Group, or The archaeology of Ulster (Mallory and McNeill, 1991).
Perhaps then ‘Ulster’ really will be more than just a place for you and your family.
DR BERNARD MULHOLLAND
Belfast BT9
What now for Colum?
Colum Eastwood said recently at his party’s gathering before the May 5 elections “this is by far the best SDLP team of candidates fighting an election, since the founding generation of our party”.
He also said: “There’s simply no match (SDLP), it’s Premier League versus Sunday league.”
The SDLP lost a third of its MLAs, down from 12 to eight, seeing big hitters such as Nichola Mallon get pushed out – the SDLP’s first preference vote dropped by 2.9 per cent.
The SDLP is a weak reflection of the once ethically strong Catholic principled party of the 1970s, 80s and early 90s.
I believe Colum Eastwood should step down and the party should now reflect on whether the party is better off chasing the progressive wave after abandoning its long standing principled core voter.
M CAIRNS
Belfast BT15
Governments need to provide answers
Women’s groups across Northern/Ireland are having conversations about the prospect of a union/unity referendum. That might be seen as an achievement (Colin Harvey, May 30). It is also straightforward pragmatism that is typical of the women’s sector in Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Those involved want to know how life can be made better for everyone in the post-Brexit here and now. What might a return to the European Union mean?
What will be on offer for women’s equality and rights come the referendum?
There are no answers available for now. But cross-border partnerships and baseline academic research are well underway. For instance, reports and podcasts from the Royal Irish Academy Analysing and Researching Ireland North and South (ARINS) are an excellent source of information in relation to health, welfare, living standards and the economy either side of the border. It is time for the British and Irish governments to begin to provide answers and options to complex questions being raised in responsible civic conversations. The research is useful but the governments have responsibility. Inaction is both inadequate and irresponsible.
EILISH ROONEY
Scholar Emeritus, Ulster University
