to think there must be some kind of border in Ireland / Northern Ireland because of people

[kalapattar]

All the talk has been about goods and services.

But how will people travel between the UK and Ireland without a physical border? Passport checks, immigration status etc. There won't be a border between mainland UK and Northern Ireland so how will this work?

that unites us in NI more than anything else and that's being told how to go on by anyone else grin your not serious suggestions put my hackles up and I think I'm fairly neutral overall...

You'll be grand, I'm not expecting to be asked by TM to take over the running of the place.

It's funny though, in Ireland, we can't throw off the shackles of the Church quickly enough. We're desperate to be modern, European and secular. A large part of the attraction of the Gaelscoil is that they aren't owned and run by the Church.

In NI lots and lots of schools aren't run by any particular church. There aren't any "Protestant" schools that I'm aware of.

P'raps you are not aware of any 'Catholic' churches there, either, since you don't see any signs outside

DH’s aunt informed me that her granddaughter was going to a ‘Protestant’ school, any schools outside the maintained ones are that to her and probably lots of people.

I’d have loved to send DS to an integrated primary but it was just too far to travel. If you’d told me years ago I’d be sending DS to a Catholic school I wouldn’t have believed it, but class sizes of 20 and excellent results and everyone I ask (bar one) giving good reports of it is hard to turn down...

From Wikipedia:

"Education in Northern Ireland is heavily segregated. Most state schools in Northern Ireland are predominantly Protestant, while the majority of Catholic children attend schools maintained by the Catholic Church. In all, 90 per cent of children in Northern Ireland still go to separate faith schools.[2] The consequence is, as one commentator has put it, that "the overwhelming majority of Ulster's children can go from four to 18 without having a serious conversation with a member of a rival creed."

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segregation_in_Northern_Ireland

I don't think that's quite right. You wouldn't call the education and library board schools faith schools as such and that commentator is talking bollocks.

Plus, Ulster is more counties than those in NI. Whoever wrote that has an agenda, or they're lazy.

@flavia

Snap DS goes to a CCMS catholic school although we are Protestant. Very small classes, 18. He's happy, we are happy, the school doesn't care and he doesn't take RE classes.

The only Protestant faith schools I know of are the private Free Presbyterian ones, or Living Rivers. Now those definitely are faith schools. Although I certainly wouldn't argue that the overwhelming majority of non Catholic schools have mostly Protestant pupils, if you know what I mean!

A lot of the state primaries have got Presbyterian ministers on the board of governors because the churches were the ones who funded those particular schools when they were originally set up 100 or 150 years ago. But I'm not sure if that makes them what you'd call a faith school? Although it obviously does have some influence on the ethos of the school.

I would also love to have had access to an integrated primary school but the nearest ones were too far away and there was no way we would have got in, even if we could have made the travelling work.

See the fact that some of youse have your children in the other community faith's schools means that their generation is growing up with so much less sectarian shite than we all did.
I salute you, seriously.

right. You wouldn't call the education and library board schools faith schools as such and that commentator is talking bollocks.

It's not saying that they are faith schools in that they are run by a church, it's saying that they are schools segregated by faith. These figures aren't desperately up to date but I think we can safely say that things aren't changing quickly:

• 493 schools in the 2011/12 year educated almost exclusively pupils of just one religion (95% or more) – compared to 827 schools in 1997/98
• The total number of schools has reduced from 1,183 to 1,070
• 20 controlled schools – which are traditionally attended by Protestant children - had a Catholic pupil enrolment of more than 30% in 2011/12
• 91% of Protestant primary children attended controlled schools and 88% of Catholic primary pupils were enrolled in Catholic maintained primaries in the last academic year
• Integrated school pupil numbers have increased from 8,154 to 21,170 between the two school years

Errant 'youse' slipping out there while I talk to other nor'n Ireland folk.
DH can't believe the different in my accent when I visit home, though I've never slipped into it while typing before.

A school attended by Protestants isn't the same as a Protestant school though? The faith (or none) if the pupils who attend doesn't influence the ethos of the school or vice versa?

Have been following this thread from the start and find it fascinating:

Both my husband and I went to a integrated school.. it opened in 1996.

He carries a British passport
I carry an Irish

Our best friends are protestants
We are Catholics

Religion has never came in to our social circle

Expecting our first baby who will also be brought up in integrated education and will know no difference other that to respect people their views and beliefs.

We want to see a change in northern Ireland. It's time for different parties and to see progressision. These 6 counties are suffering because one side votes to keep the other side out, the whole thing is a joke. The collapse of stormount is now affecting my husband's work... change is the only thing that is going to solve many of the problems ni have.

isn't the same as a Protestant school though? The faith (or none) if the pupils who attend doesn't influence the ethos of the school or vice versa?

It's not about the ethos of the school, it's not about there being anything wrong with the teachings of either faith, it's about children not being exposed to anyone from the other side of the political devide. Social housing is segregated at a rate of 90%, privately owned housing less so, but is still significantly segregated.

Well, I went to one and there were Catholic pupils, plus those of other faiths and none, but there's such a push towards cross community work in all schools that even if a school was 100% Protestant they'd still meet children of other faiths in school.
It's not the same as a 50/50 split but it's not quite the picture that Wikipedia link paints.

Is there an actual border with border guards on? Never seen them when travelling within Europe but how does it work in the Ireland / Northern Ireland border. I thought there were no borders there.

Jaysus Christ Almighty, you are a moron.

Jaysus Christ Almighty, you are a moron

It was a question about borders - and how the UK is able to know who comes into the UK.

There are border guards at Dover and other ports of entry to the UK. We know who enters the UK via these entrances.

It seems that we don't know who enters the UK from Ireland - be they Irish citizens, EU citizens or people from other parts of the world.

And it seems that the checks on the ferries aren't consistent.

I too was educated in rural Ireland and the fervour with which Irish was taught caused huge problems. There is no better way to turn off kids than forcing them to learn something when they clearly have no talent for it. Is it still the case that you fail the whole leaving cert if you fail Irish? I was in danger of that but scraped a pass. I was good at other stuff but not languages. And while we are talking Irish education did your school offer history for leaving cert. Mine didn't bizarrely and it was a good school.

It's interesting to hear everyone's experiences of Irish. My ex speaks to DD in a mixture of English and Irish, they spoke a lot of Irish at home when he was a child. I've always had the impression his family are a tiny minority?

I do think to keep a language alive it must be spoken at home.

I have 2 French friends with kids. One spoke French at home and one didn't speak French at home. All the kids learnt French in London schools. Guess who can speak and write French and guess who is as good at French as I am at Irish?

My friends just had a really painful journey trying to meet the conditions for a UK spousal visa. They flew from the US to Dublin, then to London and then there was no immigration checks in London so they didn't get the stamp they needed. They rang the immigration phone line but no luck and ended up flying to Amsterdam and back just to get the stamp.

That's a good point, Jewel. My parents would refuse to answer me if I spoke in English at home when I was a child. We lived mostly outside my birth country. I hated it, but I look at friends I grew up with who can't speak their "own" language as adults and I get why they did it.