I WAS brought up a Catholic. I went to a Catholic secondary school, lived in a Catholic area, had Catholic friends and Catholic family.
I grew up during the worst days of the Troubles. Protestants and Catholics didn't really mix, it was the way it was.
There were no cross-community projects back then. I remember the first time I met someone from the Protestant faith.
I'd say I was well into my teenage years, and even then there wasn't really an opportunity for us to get to know one another well.
Decades of division, uncertainty, mistrust and the notion that we were 'too different' probably kept many similar potential friends from developing a real friendship, as well as the lack of a place people could hang out where both felt safe and comfortable.
Such division really isn't a good thing. It definitely feeds the fake idea that we are different, that we're somehow better than one another and better off without one another.
It is the very reason why we have such paper thin peace here, and every so often the old sectarian beast rips through it, wrecking the place before it's put back in its place.
This division and sticking to our own is the cause of much hatred and mistrust and, left alone to fester further, will not provide a concrete peace and stability to build a better Northern Ireland on.
Obviously things have changed dramatically here since I was a growing up.
Since peace broke out there have been so many great opportunities to get to know people who perhaps once were considered 'the other side'. I have many, many Protestant friends now from all over Northern Ireland.
It's not even 'a thing' anymore. But I feel things haven't moved on or changed enough.
Two years ago I worked on a project that brought teenagers from separate predominantly Protestant and Catholic estates in Derry together for a project.
At the start of the week, the two groups sat in different ends of the room – the Catholic group at one end, the Protestant groups at the other – not conversing at all.
They were given projects to help them mix and by the end of the week, although they still stuck to their groups, there were at least some friendships were forged – for that week anyway.
One of the Protestant teens told me he had never had a Catholic friend, but when he talked to one he discovered they liked the same music, the same TV shows and had the same sense of humour.
After the project was finished they went back to their own area and probably never saw each other again. Such a pity.
The work needs to start in childhood. If children are mixing with other children of all religions and none and all backgrounds, it doesn't become 'a thing' to judge someone because of their faith or their background.
They are just friends, because they like each other.
Integrated education can be the foundation on which to build a more progressive, more understanding, more peaceful society here in Northern Ireland.
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in 2016 re-iterated its concern that segregation of schools by religion persists in Northern Ireland – and goes on to recommend that the government here should actively promote a fully integrated education system.
According to the Integrated Education Fund website IEF.org.uk, a survey conducted in 2013 found that almost 80 per cent of parents in Northern Ireland would support a move by their school to become integrated.
However, 18 years after the Good Friday Agreement, there are only 65 integrated schools in Northern Ireland, educating children from pre-school to 18 years old.
No integrated school has been established by the Department of Education. Every integrated school has been established by committed and pioneering local parents or after a campaign for an existing school to become integrated through an official process termed 'transformation'.
As of September 2016, 25 integrated schools are 'transformed' schools.
This is a start, but it's not enough. We all try to teach our children to love and respect one another and integrated education is the best vehicle to drive this message home.
Let's make a bigger effort to gift our children a future of peace and harmony.
