Fortnight Publications Ltd.

Fair? HardlyAuthor(s): Bob CooperSource: Fortnight, No. 289 (Nov., 1990), pp. 8-9Published by: Fortnight Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25552589 .

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Unwillingly to school??pupils arriving at Hazelwood

IntegratedCollege in north Belfast

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Crozier rebuffed IN the High Court in Belfast last

month, Lord Justice MacDermott

ruled against the Catholic bishops'

challenge to parts of last year's Education Reform Order dealing with integrated education.

The judge assumed, for the pur

poses of the case, that by placing a

"duty to encourage and facilitate

integrated education" on the De

partment of Education, the order

treated integrated schools more

favourably. But he would not ac

cept this amounted to discrimina

tion on either ground prohibited in

section 17 ofthe Northern Ireland

Constitution Act of 1973.

It was not discrimination on the

ground of religious belief, for "it is

all other schools and those who are

associated with them who are dis

advantaged": if the 99 per cent of

non-integrated schools are some

how disadvantaged, that includes

controlled (Protestant) schools. Add

to that that some Catholics attend

integrated and controlled schools

and the bishops were struggling. Which led their counsel to ar

gue the order might discriminate

on the ground of political opinion.

Again the judge disagreed, saying the government's attitude towards

integrated education was "founded

in what I consider to be the non

political belief that as a matter of

educational policy it is in the public interest to support integrated edu

cation. Certainly any less favour

able treatment suffered by the class

which the Applicants represent is

not suffered by reason of their po litical opinion alone because that

class could embrace every possible shade of political opinion."

Nor was the judge impressed by

ingenious attempts to interpret 'discrimination' in the 1973 Act

broadly, by reference to the Lords'

decision in the sex discrimination

case James v Eastleigh. He pre ferred the robust view of Lord Grif

fiths in that case, that the question of discrimination "does not permit of much refinement... it is a ques tion of fact which has to be an

swered by applying common sense

to the facts of the particular case".

This was exactly what Lord

Justice MacDermott did. And he

had the common sense to deliver

judgment while the bishops were

scattered from Rome to the United

States, which gives all sides time to

absorb the arguments before an

appeal is considered.

It was clear during this sum

mer's hearing that the judge regret ted the breakdown of trust between

the government and the bishops.

How, now, about talks about talks,

rather than appeal after appeal? The

department ought to be magnani mous and offer to reconsider the

asymmetry of some provisions of

the order?such as for schools

moving from one sector to another.

Likewise, acceptance of the

verdict by the bishops might be a

sign ofthe goodwill they professed when they claimed: 'The church

does nothing to obstruct or oppose the efforts of people whose sincer

ity we respect and who feel that this

(viz the establishment of integrated

schools) is the way forward." It is

better for bishops to be more sued

against?as when Dr Cahal Daly, in the neighbouring court, defeated

the challenge from the rebel priest Fr Buckley?than suing.

Lord Justice MacDermott ended

with a plea to the drafters of legis lation?which became even more

poignant with the fair employment fiasco [see opposite]. Observing that the new law was in effect a sup

plement to an earlier order, he said:

"Where individual members ofthe

public are expected to participate in the administration of the educa

tion system it would seem to me to

be desirable that they should only have to refer to one document and

that that document should be ex

pressed in crisp and easily under

stood language." Amen.

Simon Lee

Politics is child's play

NORTHERN Ireland is only one of

many divided societies throughout the world. Its differences, however,

have resulted in a sectarianism and

prejudice which manifest them

selves in violent outbursts in each

generation. It is not surprising, then,

that its children absorb feelings of

hatred and intolerance towards 'the

other side'.

To combat such sectarianism,

PlayBoard Northern Ireland, a

voluntary body promoting oppor tunities for children's play, has

produced a research document

which gives guidelines for play workers on how to prevent sectar

ian incidents happening on their

schemes?and how to defuse them

if they do.

PlayBoard, which has previ

ously produced advice on encour

aging equality at play between boys and girls, believes play is an ideal

medium for promotion of mutual

understanding and acceptance of

diversity?indeed many play work

ers had requested such research. As

the guidelines are very practical, this was mainly qualitative, based

on consultation with practitioners and observation on six schemes

across the region. To establish co-operative and

harmonious play environments, the

guidelines show the need not only for basic good play practice, but

also listening and communication

skills and knowledge of different world cultures. They stress that

there is work to do in all schemes,

whether single-denomination or

cross-community: intolerance

should be challenged, they say, not

just because a person from 'the

other side' is present, but because

sectarianism is wrong. Children themselves can be very

clear on this. A group of 7-11 year olds put it this way: "We want more

helping of neighbours. We do not

like cars that knock you down. We

do not like insults. We do not like

fighting with the Protestants."

PlayBoard believes that this

document is a small but innovative

step towards breaking down sec

tarianism, promoting co-operation and understanding in future gen erations and helping to sweep away

past hatreds. We owe this at least to

the children interviewed who said:

"We want a community centre that

everyone can go to."

* Play without Frontiers, availablefrom

PlayBoard NI, 136 University Street,

Belfast BT7 1HH (?2.50 members, ?3

non-members)

Brid Ruddy

Fair?

Hardly CLAUSE 30 of the 1989 Fair

Employment Act, which last month

brought the hearing of individual

complaints of religious discrimi

nation to a shuddering halt, was

intended to ensure employers would

keep information about their em

ployees' religion confidential.

It was known there would need

to be exemptions, and so the act

said this information could be given where necessary for the purposes of proceedings "under this Act ei

ther before a court or before a Tri

bunal". It had been widely assumed

this would enable an employer to

produce information about the re

ligion of employees or applicants in response to a complaint?that, since the Fair Employment Tribu

nal was established by the 1989 act,

its proceedings would be covered.

But last month the tribunal ruled

that a complaint is brought under

the 1976 Fair Employment Act?

8 NOVEMBER FORTNIGHT

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so the exemption does not apply. This means that the Fair Em

ployment Commission?indeed

any person acting on behalf on a

complainant?cannot gain access

to any information about the relig ion of employees or potential

employees of the company against whom the complaint is made. And

an employer cannot produce infor

mation about the religion of his

employees or applicants without

risking commiting an offence. If,

say, a Catholic complains of dis

crimination, the employer cannot,

without the written permission of

the successful candidate, reply that

in fact another Catholic was ap

pointed. Virtually no complaints can be processed through the tribu

nal until the clause is amended.

There was much debate before

the act was initiated as to how indi

vidual complaints should be treated.

The Fair Employment Agency and

the Irish Congress of Trade Unions

argued that, because of the sensi

tivity of religious discrimination,

they should continue to be dealt

with by a private investigation, to

be conducted by the Fair Employ ment Commission. Employers'

organisations and many other bod

ies, including the Standing Advi

sory Commission on Human

Rights, recommended that discrimi

nation by religion should be dealt

with on the same basis as sex and

race?before a public tribunal

through an adversarial procedure. The government accepted the

latter viewpoint?but then included

confidentiality provisions which

differed from the sex/race model

and which have ultimately stulti

fied this section of the act. There is

no way of combining the privacy of

the 1976 provisions with the public forum method introduced in 1989.

While one understands the de

sire of government to safeguard

privacy, by ensuring that monitor

ing information remains confiden

tial, this cannot be sustained where

an individual has brought a com

plaint against the employer and the

religion of individuals is relevant

to a determination of the case.

Many people had expected that

it would be the monitoring sections

of the act which would pose sub

stantial problems. In fact, they have

gone remarkably smoothly, and

employers appear quickly to have

grasped what they need to do and

co-operated fully with the commis

sion. It is the individual complaints

sections, which were not expected to cause much difficulty, which

have created the mess. Section 30

must be quickly and radically

amended, if government is to fulfil

its commitment to effective legis lation to eliminate discrimination.

Bob Cooper

House and

home

CARRICK House hostel in north Belfast was the forerunner of

modern public housing in the city. It was built to the highest standards

by the city council in 1903 as a

model for the lodging houses?

"very inferior and liable to be pro ductive of disease", according to

its public health committee.

In April of last year, responsi

bility for it passed from social serv

ices to the Housing Executive, under new legislation on home

lessness. The executive believes

the small cubicles, as well as the

communal facilities, are wholly

inadequate. The residents feared

they would be dispersed.

The 60 occupants, who have

stayed ten years on average, came

to Carrick House as homeless men,

but they have since formed a mutu

ally supporting community and are

an integral part of the area. For

some, transitory lives as seamen or

soldiers gave them few opportuni ties to maintain family networks,

while others' families had broken

down. A few were discharged some

years ago from psychiatric institu

tions?they would find it very difficult to survive without the sup

port network the hostel provides.

Uniquely, Carrick House is open to

both sections of the community.

Through the Carrick House and

Friends Committee, earlier this year the residents agreed with the ex

ecutive objectives against which

future options were to be judged. A

feasibility study has been prepared with the help of architects and the

Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust.

The residents' preference is re

furbishment into flats and bedsits.

They strongly wish to stay in the

area, acknowledging their need for

support in settling into permanent and more private accommodation.

Peter Murray, chair of the resi

dents' committee, summed up their

feelings: "We are all company for

each other. That is what makes

Carrick House what it is."

Deirdre MacBride

ANTIQUARIAN BOOKSELLERS

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COMMITTEE ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE

Pamphlet No 17

Making Rights Count This latest CAJ pamphlet was published in

October 1990. It contains discussion,

analysis and documentation of international

charters of rights and their application to

Northern Ireland. A Bill of Rights for Northern Ireland, proposed by CAJ, is

appended. The Bill itself is available as a

separate, cheaper publication. Price: Making Rights Count ?3.00; A Bill

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OLD MUSEUM ARTS CENTRE

Friday 2nd November 1990

PINSKI ZOO "Snarling through the bars of funk

and free jazz"?The Wire

DUNBAR LINK INN Saturday 8th December 1990

WATCH WHAT HAPPENS

featuring Melanie O'Reilly (vocals) -

with Colin Steele (trumpet), John Rae

(drums) Ronnie Rae Jnr (keyboards), Dave Haswell (percussion), Brian

Shiels (bass)

Doors open at 9pm, late bar

Supported by the Arts Council for Northern Ireland

FORTNIGHT NOVEMBER 9

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