Baroness May Blood Of Blackwatertown

By Tony Quinn

The title 'Baroness' conjures, to many, the image of a loose witted, dusty, octogenarian shuffling around in scarlet robes and ermine. It is refreshing then that upon meeting Baroness May Blood that sense of looming pomposity vanishes instantly. A wonderfully open, insightful and genuinely warm individual, May Blood, the first woman from Northern Ireland to be granted a life peerage, is a singularly remarkable lady from a city that has given its fair share of characters to the world of politics, sports, the arts and business. Belying her affable nature, a determination within is apparent -- a trait similarly found in many other Belfast women as in recent history it was, for the most part, these women of Belfast who held the fabric of the city together as others tried to rent the city in shreds.

The revolution Baroness May Blood is now involved in is a far cry from the bombs and bullets that brought Northern Ireland to front pages and Television lead stories across the globe. In any other part of the world it may not seem to be so radical, but integrated education in Northern Ireland is just that.

Prior to third level education the vast majority of children are educated in schools divided by religion - Protestant children for the most part attend what are know as 'state' schools while most Catholic children attend Catholic schools - May Blood wants to change this and have children educated together, thus ending the age old adage of 'them and us'.

Recently May visited New York, Washington D.C. and Boston, a trip that had a two-fold purpose. "We have a lot of support here in America and we receive a lot of support from the American Ireland Fund, so we are here to personally thank a lot of people and we are also here to make new friends because this is a very costly business and we are continually fund raising.

"The beauty of an individuals donation [to integrated education] is that people here in the United States who contribute can go to Northern Ireland and see how their money has been spent. We are very thankful to the Ireland Fund but we can't solely depend on them, we need to be broadening the net here in the U.S. and we realize we have to do that work ourselves, we don't expect anyone else to do it for us."

Along with the Ireland Funds May is quick to offer her appreciation for others from the United States who have helped her over the years mentioning George Mitchel, Mitchell Reis, Richard Haas and the American Consulate in Belfast as just some of those who have pushed the issue of integrated education along with the Dublin Government.

Roden Street To Westminister

May Blood was born in Belfast on Roden Street in the Grosvenor Road area, a place far removed from Westminister Palace in London where she now sits in the House of Lords. When May was 31, the 'Troubles' broke out in Northern Ireland and her family were burned out of their home and moved to an area at the top of the Shankill Road known as Springmartin where she continues to live.

From a young age and then for nearly 40 years May Blood worked with others from her neighborhood in Blackstaff Mill and for a large part of that time was a member and representative of the Transport and General Workers Union. It was membership of the Union over those years that allowed May to receive her education. When the mill closed in 1990 May became involved in community work in the Shankill Road area, work for which she has been awarded three honorary doctorates.

Elevated to the House of Lords in 1999, May travels regularly to London to take her seat - the mill girl and the aristocracy doing business and agreeing compromise. When not in London it is not the towers and battlements of a castle or a country 'pile' that May calls home but that house she has lived in for many years beside her old neighbors in Belfast. Despite having a title she remains extremely close to her community and they to her: "I was asked by a journalist if they call me Baroness Blood on the Shankill, I told him, 'they call me a whole lot of things but Baroness isn't one of them!'"

Integrated Education

Setting up an integrated school in Northern Ireland requires a lot of work from May and her team as she herself explains. "Once a group of parents come forward to start an integrated school there are a number of things they have to do: They have to market themselves within the local community; they have to spread information on the school and hold public meetings. They then formulate a development proposal with the Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE) that is then submitted to the Department of Education (DOE) for funding. A school can be awarded funding from the Department from day one if it fulfills these minimum criteria but capital funding is left up to NICIE.

"Some schools that are not integrated but wish to become so, are funded by the DOE but NICIE will also put in place funding to support the transformation, e.g. to train teachers. Today, like other schools in Northern Ireland, 59 of the 61 integrated schools now receive 100 per cent government funding."

Some parents, from both sides of the religious divide, are reluctant to send their children to an integrated school for fear of lack of religious instruction in the child's adopted faith, but the issue of children's spiritual welfare is also taken care of according to May. "Any religious affiliation a child has is looked after by the school because religious education is part of the curriculum. So if a child is Protestant then their needs are met by the Protestant Church or if a child is of the Catholic persuasion then their needs are met by the Catholic Church."

May is realistic in that she understands that a choice of schools should be made available to parents. "There are always going to be people in the grammar system and in the church system but the norm should be that there is an integrated school available for kids to go to together. There should be an integrated choice in every area.

The Catholic Church

One of the biggest obstacles in the past to integrated education was the reluctance of the Catholic Church to give up its control of schools but this may be changing, albeit at near glacial pace, as May explains. "The Catholic Church are loathe to give up the hold they have, but we slowly see that cracking around the edges. For a long time priests would not have been involved in integrated schools - for a long time if a child went to an integrated school they were almost ostracized by their church.

"The problem as I see it is that I think the Catholic Church has a duty of care to the Catholic kids who go to an integrated school and at the moment I don't think they are fulfilling that as much as I would like them to. But we see that slowly changing."

The reason for this change in the mindset of the Catholic Church in May's opinion is the return of some priests from missionary work overseas and the fact that in some interface areas where the two communities live in very close proximity priests are getting involved because they see the role as part of their duty.

A measure of the success of the integrated schools are exam results obtained by students and preferential exam results being obtained in the non-integrated schools is a fallacy according to May. "When the results come out every year you will find three of the top five non-grammar schools are integrated. Our results are second to none... there is nothing to stop students fulfilling their potential."

The 11 Plus Debate

A difficult bone of contention in Northern Ireland in recent years has been the '11-Plus' exam that children sit at 11 years old. The result of this test determines whether the child goes to a grammar or non-grammar secondary school. The new Stormont Assembly has decided to scrap the test and May supports the move to end this form of selection as children from wealthier families receive private tutoring prior to the exam, increasing the likelihood of them being offered a grammar school place. "The big debate in Northern Ireland is how they replace, do they replace and if they replace what do they replace it (the 11 Plus) with?

"I took the 11-Plus as a child, in my day it was just an exam but in the last 20-25 years it has become a class issue - a very divisive class issue as children are now tutored to a degree that is almost unbelievable to get through this class barrier.

"At the end of the day I am not opposed to grammar schools, I wish all the kids I work with in the Shankill would get to a grammar school. In Northern Ireland we are reputed to have the best education system in the world... which we have, there is no denying that... for the top 30 per cent of young people. But the bottom 30 per cent are just getting lost in the education system because of the 11 Plus. For example last year on the Shankill 200 kids took the 11 Plus of which 20 passed. Integrated education is not against grammar schools in any way. We just see that educating the children of all abilities together is the best way forward."

Inside the Lords

May spends three days a week in London at the House of Lords. A typical day in the House for May is full and varied. At her desk by 9.30am dealing with correspondence, she then attends many meetings before the House itself sits at 2.30pm, beginning with prayers. Along with her work with integrated education, May is also active with other groups including working with women in Iran dealing with human rights and she may remain in Westminster until 10 or 11pm.

Asked about the various characters within the House of Lords she replies. "You could write a book on them all. The guy sitting facing me on the Conservative benches is one of the few to ever escape from Colditz Castle [a German 'escape- proof' prison], one woman worked on the Enigma Files during World War Two and another woman was a spy during the Cold War."

Peers are appointed for life and though May was active in the labor movement for many years she now understands the importance of the role of the House of Lords. "I first went in as a good old-fashioned socialist and I thought, 'this is a place where rich old men go to sleep all day', but I have to say my opinion has changed over the past nine years, it does tremendous work. We get bills coming down from the House of Commons and they are gone through line by line and the bill leaves the House of Lords a much better bill than when it arrived, the expertise in the House is amazing. It is a vital part of the whole political machine. In saying that I would prefer an elected chamber, at the moment we are appointed by the Prime Minister but I would like to see an elected chamber. If you take Northern Ireland we have sixteen peers representing Northern Ireland but you would be hard pushed to find anyone in Northern Ireland to name all sixteen. If I represent people they should know who I am.

"There are a number of peers who use the House as an old boys club and very much an old boys club, not an old girls club. Even when I stand up to speak in the house I refer to everybody as 'My Lord' you never say 'My Lords and Ladies'. Up until two years ago we didn't even have female toilets on the parliamentary floor and last year we took over two of the male toilets - they were not amused!

"Up until 1965 women were not allowed to sit in the House of Lords and Scottish peers were not allowed to sit, but slowly things are changing and the average age of the peers is coming down. When I began over nine years ago the average age was 66 - the average age now is 62 and some peers in the House are looking for child care provision."

Baroness May Blood of Blackwatertown

The title she would assume after being awarded the peerage was the subject of much discussion within the community."What did I know about setting a title?" May remarks. "I asked if I could be called after Roden Street where I was born, but I was told, 'that would be beneath your dignity'. So then I proffered Grosvenor after the Grosvenor Road but that's the Duke of Westminster's title.

"You have to show on a map the area you are going to be called after. Up until recently I believed that the area where I was born was beside the Blackwater river but it is actually the Blackstaff River. On the map there is a place called Blackwatertown, that sounded fine, and it was sealed with the royal seal. A few days later I met a friend of mine and said, 'I better go to Blackwatertown and see what they do, just in case someone asks me a question about the history of Blackwatertown!'

"When the Troubles broke out in 1969 Blackwatertown was 99 per cent Protestant, there was only one Catholic family living there. Today it is the exact opposite. I went there and every house had an Irish tricolor out the window and the street names were in Irish and I thought to myself, 'what have I done?' I couldn't change the title as it had been sealed.

"When I got back to the Shankhill I was asked what made me take the name of a Republican 'hole' like Blackwatertown. I then told that story on television and the people of Blackwatertown were really angry. They invited me to visit and when I went they treated me like absolute royalty, gave me gifts and wanted me to stay the night and they still keep in touch with me.

"They had a project they needed funding involving fishing in the local river and once they had a Baroness on their headed paper they got funding for the project, so they were thrilled."

The Future

The success of the new Assembly and the continuing absence of the threat of violence from both sides has brought significant changes on the ground in Belfast, changes that May has experienced herself. "I have seen things recently that I never thought would be possible. Two years ago I tried to bring the Irish President, Mary McAleese, who I know quite well as she was born close to the Shankhill, to a school to meet the kids and I was lambasted and told, 'no, no, no' and now there is no problem."