The actor Liam Neeson has called for more integration in the schools system in Northern Ireland.
In a video released on 8 February by the Integrated Education Fund (IDF) Neeson asks why more Catholic and Protestant children are not taught together.
"As Northern Ireland moves forward from division, who do we look to for a future we can share? Our children - so why do we continue to educate them apart? Different religions, different backgrounds, different schools.”
"There is another way," he adds. "Protestants and Catholics, other beliefs and none, learning and working together every day."
Just seven per cent of children in Northern Ireland are taught at schools that are integrated. The remaining 93 per cent are taught in schools that are predominantly Catholic or Protestant.
The actor urges parents to further the cause of school integration by registering their support on the Integrate My School website.
If a school is to become formally integrated the majority of parents with children at the school will need to favour integration.
An integrated school needs to attract at least 30 per cent of its students from the minority community in the area.
The first, Lagan College in Belfast, opened in 1981 but the growth of the sector has stalled in recent years, report the BBC.
Neeson was raised as a Catholic, but grew up in a predominantly Protestant town in Northern Ireland. He plays a Jesuit priest in the recent Martin Scorsese film 'Silence'.
"Most people agree that educating children together is a better way forward for our society - it's time to turn our aspiration into reality, " he says in the video.
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