School’s admissions policy unfair, court is told
Recovered treasure on display in exhibition
A Belfast grammar school has allegedly discriminated against children from disadvantaged backgrounds by its admissions criteria, the High Court heard today.
Lawyers for a boy seeking to attend St Malachy’s College claimed greater priority should have been given to pupils entitled to free school meals.
An emergency legal challenge has been brought against its board of governors over criteria published for the September 2021 intake.
With transfer tests cancelled due to the pandemic, schools have drawn up alternative methods of selection.
But it was claimed that St Malachy’s has unlawfully failed to adhere to guidance issued by the Department of Education.
Children with a sibling who previously attended the school are wrongly being given priority over those eligible for free school meals, it was contended.
Mr Justice Colton was told the criteria is allegedly irrational, in breach of a statutory duty and a violation of human rights.
Hugh Southey QC, for the boy at the centre of the case, claimed the Department’s guidance had been misunderstood.
He also argued that the free school meals criteria was important for helping to remedy educational disadvantages suffered by children from poorer backgrounds.
“The reason why free school meals is such an important criteria is that quite clearly there is a recognition historically that children from disadvantaged economic backgrounds have been disadvantaged in the education system.
“The underlying objective of this guidance is quite clear, it is to a significant degree intended to reduce the discrimination suffered by those who are economically disadvantaged,” he said. “That criteria needs to be applied with care, and it hasn’t been.”
Paul Mclaughlin QC, representing the board of governors, told the court the legislative framework was “deliberately looser” than for pre-school admissions.
“It is one in which any recognition of free school meals is not mandatory,” he said.
“There is no legal requirement upon any post-primary school to prioritise to any degree free school meals-eligible pupils as part of their admissions criteria.”
According to Mr Mclaughlin there is “flexibility” for boards of governors to formulate criteria in a way which fits the priorities and ethos of individual schools.
“They are fully entitled to do that within the constraints of regular public law powers,” he said. Judgment was reserved.
A diver who explored a Spanish Armada wreck off the Irish coastline and helped shed new light on one of history’s turning points said it was worth all the effort and expense.
Dave Atherton conducted underwater archaeology on one of the 16th century invasion force vessels sunk near the coast of Donegal, a disaster for the continent’s superpower which heralded the rise of the British Empire.
This month marks the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the remains of La Trinidad Valencera in 1971. Its bronze cannon has pride of place at the Tower Museum in Londonderry as part of a new exhibition.
Mr Atherton said: “Diving in an excavation like that is archaeology, it just happens to be under 30 feet of water.
“Some people drive a car to work, other people put on a wet suit and air supply, so really diving is a means to an end.”
The Armada galleon sank in 1588 off Kinnagoe Bay, in northeastern Co Donegal.
Mr Atherton was not among those from the City of Derry Sub Aqua club who first discovered the wreck.
He became a club member some time later and helped with the archaeology work.
He dived the site until excavation stopped in 1983 and subsequently wrote a book about the discovery.
LOCAL survivors and loved ones of those affected by the contaminated blood scandal are speaking out in their search for answers.
At least 2,400 people died in the UK after being treated with infected blood products during transfusions and other treatments in the 1970s and 1980s.
UTV’S current affairs programme Up Close tonight interviews people who are still seeking the truth after 30 years.
Patients, families, lawyers, medical experts, campaigners and Health Minister Robin Swann discuss the scandal.
In 2017 the Infected Blood Inquiry was ordered in London after massive pressure from patients, families and politicians, but it is not expected to be completed until 2023.
Up Close’s Gareth Wilkinson spoke to Linda Edgerton, who lost her son Russell.
In the late Seventies a new product called Factor VIII was developed that could be administered at home to treat haemophilia. Treatments up until then involved lengthy stays in hospital.
However, Russell contracted HIV in 1985 aged just 18 after Factor VIII treatment for his haemophilia.
“It seemed very unreal and it seemed very far away, something that was happening in America and we really didn’t expect it to catch up with us,” said Linda.
“If he hadn’t been infected he could have lived a fairly normal life.”
Paul Kirkpatrick and his older brother Desmond both suffered from the most severe form of haemophilia. As children in the Sixties, their lives revolved around hospital treatment — but Factor VIII changed that.
However, Paul was to later find out that his liver had been badly affected.
“The medical due diligence wasn’t what it should have been in those days,” he said.
Desmond died from hepatitis C in 2014 aged 51. Paul hopes the inquiry will provide answers over what happened.
He told Up Close: “In any form of life there should be justice. People have lost their children, their brothers, the main partners in their life, their best friends in life.”
As demand for Factor VIII outstripped supply in the UK doctors started importing it from the US. But it was later discovered the blood used in the treatment had been donated by prisoners, drug users and sex workers.
The programme reveals there were concerns about American blood products as far back as the 1940s, while concerns were raised again in the 1960s. By the 1970s the UK was advised by a leading academic that American blood used in Factor VIII was “extraordinarily hazardous”.
However, it continued to be made and distributed to patients, despite the risks.
Infected patients and their families are entitled to financial support under a Uk-wide scheme introduced to coincide with the inquiry.
Patients here had been receiving up to £14,000 less than those in England, Scotland and Wales, but last August Mr Swann brought payments into line with Britain.
“Hopefully the inquiry will make a move that it is standardised and everybody receives the same recognition for the hurt that was done,” said the Health Minister.
Up Close will air at 9pm tonight on UTV.