Ulster integration
From Brigadier Michael Calvert Sir: Some soldiers who had returned from Ulster told me, "The thing we dislike most is the hatred of the children. They are taught at school to hate us. Why can't they have integrated schools in Ulster? In England our young brothers and sisters were made to go to school with Indians and Negroes, Mohammedans and Hindus. None of us liked the idea at first. But they were forced to do so and, on the whole, it has worked out all right. Why can't these Protestants and Catholics be made to go to the same schools so that they can grow up together? It is the only hope for the future in Ireland.
Why indeed? It has been possible to overcome other seemingly hopeless problems by making a small start and gradually taking further steps. Would it not be postsibalte to make and enforce a law h
Roman Catholic and Protestant school classes be ordered to undertake certain school subjects together such as PE, botany, chemistry, hygiene, geometry, traffic safety and so on, at least once a week for a start?
People will jeer and say it is im possible as they did over such diverse and seemingly insoluble problems as slavery, smokeless zones, decimalisation, national health, vaccination, the Common Market.
The children would not mind.
Would parents mind, or would they prefer to face a bleak future well knowing that their children must then spend the rest of their days at enmity one with another just for want of a little charity and understanding? It has been said, "How odd of God to choose the Jews." It may be even odder, and as sensible, of God to choose the Irish to bring the Christian religions together rather than perpetuate their foolish divisions which delight our enemies.
Michael Calvert 9 Knowsley Road, Hazel Grove, Stockport, Cheshire
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