My schooldays began at Holywood Church of Ireland Primary School (most things in Northern Ireland were demarcated religiously - the alternative would have been a Roman Catholic Primary School). I was there from September 1949, aged 4, for two years, until we moved to Belfast. Not surprisingly I have no recollection of anything that happened to me there. The building that I attended has now been replaced, though the school still exists
Again looking back it is interesting to realise that one had no concept that the sectarianism that existed in Northern Ireland was in any way abnormal. We grew up in a country that effectively segregated Catholics and Protestants: in schools, in housing, in hospitals. I would enjoy watching the large Orange marches every 12th July with their bands and thousands of marchers . And at school Irish history was never taught,on the basis that it could never be taught non-politically, so would not be taught at all. Though it should be remembered that I was born only 23 years after the partition of Ireland, and the scars that this had left on both communities.
When we moved to Belfast, I started at Malone Primary