United States President Barack Obama has argued that parish schools are an impediment to the establishment of a lasting peace in Northern Ireland.
Speaking in Belfast to a crowd composed mainly of children, Obama said “segregated schools” block the path to full reconciliation.
“If towns remain divided, if Catholics have their schools and buildings and Protestants have theirs, if we can’t see ourselves in one another, if fear or resentment are allowed to harden, that encourages division, it discourages co-operation,” he said.