In Northern Ireland the motto is “Nomen est omen”. That’s what a girl explains to her nine-year-old cousin in Kenneth Branagh’s autobiographical film, Belfast, about the outbreak of the “riots” in the late 1960s, when she tells him how to recognize Catholics and Protestants by their names: if someone’s name is Patrick or Sean, it’s him Catholic, a Billy or William is Protestant. Buddy suspects that things are more complicated. He wants to know how things are with Thomas. Protestant, judges the cousin. Buddy disagrees. He has a Catholic neighbor who goes by that name. The children change the subject.
In the brief exchange, Branagh highlights the cultural stereotypes that perpetuate the historic divide between Catholics and Protestants, given that to date more than 90 per cent of Northern Ireland’s children attend segregated schools by religion. According to recent research from Ulster University, the composition of classrooms still reflects the divided nature of Northern Ireland society, although the so-called Good Friday Agreement, the 25th anniversary of which is now much more muted, albeit given the current paralysis of the Northern Ireland Protocol dispute, rather than triumphalist drive provided that segregation would be tackled in terms of building a “common and peaceful future”.