not a member? click here to sign up

Unnatural selection

Semi-literates campaigning for the preservation of elite schools? Catholic journals displaying ignorance of the core elements of Catholicism? Where will it all end?

Eamonn McCann, 16 Jan 2007

"Our grammar schools are the glory of Northern Ireland,” suggested the DUP’s Sammy Wilson a while back, praising the procedure whereby children are divided into sheep and goats at 11.

Sammy and the Duppers have had to modulate their tune since. Consigning pre-teens to the dustbin of life on the basis of a once-off examination strikes most folk as irrational, not to mention unfair. So supporters of division now take their stand on the “principle” of academic selection: as long as all youngsters are tagged as hoodies or blazers at some early stage, the DUP isn’t dogmatic about which year the earmarking should happen.

The party’s commitment to divided education is such that they made it a deal-breaker at St. Andrews and won a written guarantee that Westminster legislation will rule out a restored Assembly abolishing selection.

Nobody held out at St. Andrews for the abolition of water charges, an end to child poverty, new measures to protect the environment, or, indeed, anything else whatsoever. Outside Orange-Green issues, no party was committed to anything as strongly as was the DUP to saving the North’s grammar schools.

Ho hum. Even, ha-ha.

Evidence has come to light suggesting that academic selection is crude class-based bigotry masquerading as belief in excellence. Not that we didn’t know this already. But the evidence unearthed by leading journalistic archaeologist, Suzanne Breen of the Sunday Tribune, is striking.

In the midst of one of those quirky and possibly significant pieces in which the gamine journo seemingly specialises, Ms. Breen quoted last month from letters written by two of Sammy’s DUP sidekicks, Ian Paisley Junior and Jeffrey Donaldson, to clergyman and retired terrorist Kenny McClinton (aka Dr. C.K. McClinton, BA (Hons), MA, PhD, D. Litt., Pastor of the Ulster/American Christian Fellowship Mission) who had demanded an explanation of the DUP’s betrayal of True Protestantism as exemplified in their support for the aforementioned St. Andrew’s Agreement.



Page 1/4     <Previous 1 2 3 4 Next> 



Eamonn McCann

Related Content

Latest Articles by Eamonn McCann

Seeing Sense In The War On Drugs

A small developing nation is the latest to point out the futility of trying to ban substances that are readily available to millions...


2013-03-11

Pride Is Great, But Where's The Anger?

Gay Pride is a celebration of sexual diversity – but it is important not to forget the need for a clenched fist


2012-08-27

True Bro-mance

She’s a busy actor with a Hollywood career of long-standing. So how did Bronagh Gallagher find the time to record a cracking new solo record?


2012-06-13

Murder In An Irish Town

In September 1988, John Gallagher drove to Lifford, collected a rifle from behind the wardrobe in his father’s bedroom and headed for Sligo, where he murdered his ex-girlfriend Anne Gillespie, and her mother Annie. When the case came to court John Gallagher pleaded – and was found – guilty but insane and he was remanded to the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum. In July 2000, Gallagher successfully escaped from Dundrum and absconded to England, before returning to Northern Ireland, where he was able to live freely, because of the unique absence of an extradition treaty for people in his position. Earlier this month, in a bizarre twist, apparently in the hope of taking advantage of a bequest from his father, Gallagher turned up at the Central Mental Hospital and handed himself in. It’s open to him to apply to the Health Review Board for release on the grounds that he does not now suffer from a mental illness. The Minister for Justice, Alan Shatter, has already acknowledged the possibility that he might be released within a matter of weeks. But as far back as 1991, in a special investigation carried out for Hot Press, Eamonn McCann questioned the original verdict of the court – and whether Gallagher was ever ‘insane’ within the meaning intended by the act. In the light of the growing controversy about the case, we reprint here in full the extraordinary story as it was originally published in Hot Press.


2012-06-12

What's The Problem With Gay Marriage

Plus: the Champions League is decadent and depraved...


2012-03-28

Contact Us

Hot Press,
13 Trinity Street,
Dublin 2.
Rep. Of Ireland
Tel: +353 (1) 241 1500

Email:info@hotpress.ie

Click here for more contact information.

Click here to find out more about Hot Press

Hot Press always welcomes feed back so if you've got something to tell us click here.

Advertise With Us

For more detail on how to advertise with Hot Press click here or call us on +353 (1) 241 1540