Think again

Research published earlier this summer by the Community Relations Council in Belfast has found that, by the age of three, Catholic children in Northern Ireland are twice as likely as their Protestant counterparts to say that they don't like the police.

The reason? Until recently the police force was perceived as a predominantly Protestant body. Last year, however, its name was changed from the Royal Ulster Constabulary to the more neutral-sounding Police Force for Northern Ireland in a bid to recruit more people from a Catholic background.

But it may take more than a few years before the significance of such a move filters down to have an impact on the awareness of young children growing up in Northern Ireland, if the findings of the first-ever in-depth study into their attitudes and prejudices are anything to go by.

Among its findings are that just over half of all three-year-olds in the province are aware of the cultural or political significance of the annual Loyalist Orange parades on 12 July, and the representative flags of the Unionist and Nationalist communities with their different colours - the red, white and blue of the Union flag and the green, white and gold of the Republic of Ireland's tricolour. Regarding people's names, Catholic children preferred Sinead to Stewart, and vice versa for Protestants.

The report, Too Young To Notice? The Cultural and Political Awareness of Three-to Six-Year-Olds in Northern Ireland, by Dr Paul Connolly of the University of Ulster, is based on interviews with 352 children from across Northern Ireland. The report argues that young children pick up their attitudes from three main sources - family, local community and school - with much of very young children's experiences of the outside world filtered through their parents, older siblings, grandparents and other relatives.

It states, 'This is clearly evident by some of the comments made by the children who talk of grannies having flags outside their houses, mummies taking them to Irish dancing and brothers being in (Protestant) pipe bands.'

As for the local community, the concentration of symbols such as the large paramilitary murals on house gables in predominantly working class and urban areas 'is bound to increase the awareness and attitudes of the children who live there'.

Dr Connolly says his report underlines the important role early years settings have in ensuring children do not grow up being prejudiced about other communities. 'In some ways, the fact that the family and local community have an influence on the attitudes of young children is obvious - especially when we consider events such as those surrounding the Holy Cross Primary School,' he says.

'However, it does highlight the fact that we cannot simply expect schools to solve the problem alone. Unless we can develop community relations strategies with children that also include the family and local community, then they are going to be of very limited success.'

Community relations

Siobhan Fitzpatrick, director of NIPPA: The Early Years Organisation, which represents many pre-schools, playgroups and day nurseries across Northern Ireland, agrees. She says it is often the setting up of a new playgroup that brings together parents from both communities for the first time and lets them discover shared aspirations.

'A cross-community playgroup may be the first time that parents from both sides, and the working andmiddle classes, have met one another and begun to realise that they share the same concerns - namely their children's well-being. Their suspicions about each other soon go as they focus on what is best for their children.'

As for sectarianism itself, she says, 'We at NIPPA see this as a crucially important issue now and for the foreseeable future. We run anti-sectarian courses for staff so they have greater awareness of the issues.

'For years it has been difficult to tackle the issue of sectarianism because of obvious sensitivities, but now NIPPA branches are showing a greater awareness and willingness to take this sensitive issue on board.

'We have been impressed with how open and reflective people are regarding prejudice,' she adds.

Most early years settings across Northern Ireland take a 'softly-softly'

approach to prejudice and sectarianism. At the Magic Roundabout Day Nursery in Ballymena, Co Antrim, children from both communities attend and play happily alongside each other.

'The children all get on very well together,' Florence Allan, its proprietor and manager, explains. 'I have never observed any sectarian inclination among them, and not even from their parents. I have never once heard one child say anything sectarian to another. To me this indicates their family background.'

Mrs Allan agrees with the report that the children's upbringing and home environment is a key issue. 'Parents tend to do things with their children the way they were brought up themselves. Children reflect how they are being brought up by their families, brothers and sisters. When I was growing up, we were never allowed to judge anyone on where they went on a Sunday.'

Jacqueline Coulter, who co-founded the award-winning Broughshane Community Playgroup in Co Antrim and worked there for 12 years, also found the low-key approach worked well in a mixed rural setting.

She says, 'I found with a cross-community playgroup the parents and children mixed well. We would never ask the parents their religion and apart from perhaps the Irish spelling of the child's name we would often never know the religion of the families until the children reached compulsory school age, when parents may choose a predominately Protestant or Catholic school.'

Joyce Kullas, owner and manager of the 74-place Northland Early Years Day Nursery in Dungannon, Co Tyrone, stresses the importance of also having staff from both communities working together in the nursery. She says, 'Our children mix very well here. More than half are Catholic, even though the nursery is in a Protestant area. Our staff are mixed too.

'We haven't had any problems of children saying or doing anything of a sectarian nature. There has been nothing said about flags, for example.

When we were closed for 12 July one child said of the marchers, "Oh, they're going on a long walk", but that's as far as it gets.

'Even when four-to seven-year-old children wearing the uniforms of different Protestant and Catholic schools come to our after-school club there's no bother at all.'

Although the report found only a small percentage - around six per cent - of three-and four-year-olds identify to some degree with either the Protestant or Catholic communities, by the age of five it doubles to 13 per cent, then rises to just over one in three (34 per cent) at age six.

Dr Connolly says, 'The fact that these represent the first few years of compulsory schooling is unlikely to be a coincidence. It certainly raises important questions about the indirect effects that our segregated school system is having on the development of young children's attitudes and awareness.'

According to the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE), there are only 13 integrated nursery schools in the province, most of which are linked to primary schools, and 29 integrated primary schools.

Integrated schools

Dr Connolly estimates that only four per cent of children attend integrated schools, with the other 96 per cent going to either Protestant or Catholic schools.

'Where such environments are overwhelmingly Catholic or Protestant in their ethos, then it is not surprising to find they represent a fertile learning ground within which children's awareness about cultural and political events and symbols - as well as the attitudes and prejudices that often accompany these -increases rapidly,' his report states.

NICIE has published The Anti-Bias Curriculum, a 48-page book for all those working with children. It argues that a pluralist view of the province is the key concept underpinning any anti-bias approach to culture and race aiming to help children 'make sense of the complexities of life in Northern Ireland and encourage an objectivity in their responses to the situations which will confront them as they grow up'.

It adds, 'An anti-bias approach recognises the fact that cultural and racial attitudes are learned at a very early age. If children are allowedto develop negative racist and cultural attitudes, they will have been prevented from developing their full emotional, psychological and intellectual potential.'

After 30 years of violence, this is the least the children in Northern Ireland deserve.

MORE INFORMATION

* Too Young to Notice? costs 5 from the Community Relations Information Centre, 21 College Square East, Belfast BT1 6DE (028 9022 7555).

* The Anti-Bias Curriculum is available free from the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE), 44 University Street, Belfast BT7 1HB (028 9023 6200, fax 028 9023 6237, website www.nicie.org.uk).