Catholic bishop admits segregated schools 'enable sectarianism'

SEGREGATED Catholic education is "divisive" and "enables sectarianism", according to the Bishop of Motherwell, Joseph Devine, who is president of the Church's education committee.

"Denominational education is an enabler of sectarianism. Roman Catholic schooling is divisive," said Devine. But he addded: "Sometimes it's a price worth paying. The Catholic community believes that with denominational schooling comes the creation of a common set of values - a coherent system that has the academic curriculum and moral and spiritual life in tandem."

Devine's comments were given during a Sunday Herald investigation into sectarian Scotland, which involved a series of in-depth interviews with church leaders, police officers, council figures, MSPs, anti-sectarian campaigners, senior Old Firm executives and the Scottish Executive.

While everyone agreed that sectarianism is a "scar on the national conscience", few accepted the need for immediate action and legislation to deal with bigotry. They prefer to point the finger of blame elsewhere, and refuse to accept responsibility for their role in allowing sectarianism to prosper.

The probe also uncovered simmering anger between Celtic and Rangers over how best to deal with sectarianism. Senior Celtic executives said they did more counter-sectarianism than Rangers, with initiatives such as Bhoys Against Bigotry, and claimed Rangers "piggybacked" on their hard work.

Celtic executives described Rangers' new orange away strip as "totally out of order". Donald Gorrie, the LibDem MSP, who is campaigning for anti-sectarian legislation said the new strip could be seen as "deliberately provocative".

Celtic sources added: "There's a difference in the sectarianism exhibited by the two clubs. Ours is politically motivated - it's rebel songs about freeing Ireland. While it may not be pleasant, it's nowhere near as bad as the Rangers songs which are all about religious hatred and fenian blood."

John McLelland, the new Rangers chairman, said he was "disappointed" with Celtic's attack. "I don't want to respond to these type of allegations," he said. "I'm very surprised that such things have been said, especially when we meet with Celtic once a week to discuss such issues.

"We aggressively tackle sectarian behaviour - we seek it out and search it out. People have been banned from Ibrox for sectarianism. There are different approaches from the two clubs. We are pragmatically pursuing individuals and individual groups." Celtic, he said, were taking "a broad approach and doing it publicly".

Nil By Mouth - the anti-bigotry group set up after the 1995 killing of 16-year-old Celtic fan Mark Scott, by Rangers supporter Jason Campbell - also revealed new research which showed that from 1999-2000 there were eight sectarian killings in Scotland. In the same period there were no racist killings.

Peter McLean, of Nil By Mouth, called for immediate action: "Do we need another killing before this gets on the agenda?" McLean sent an anti-sectarian action plan to both Rangers and Celtic six months ago but has received no acknowledgement from the Old Firm.

Charlie Gordon, the leader of Glasgow City Council, said he had no powers to clamp down further on traders selling paramilitary regalia outside Old Firm games.

He did call, however, for police to take a tougher line with sectarians, and other senior councillors said they wanted the police "to go in hard and crack heads on the terraces".

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