Dr. Claire Mitchell:

It is difficult because there are patches of real inequality in our society such as in policing. It is extremely important to take account of how many Catholics are in the PSNI because that really matters. I laughed, however, when my kids did a cross-community scheme at school recently. They are in a Catholic primary school. They had to do a scheme with a school based in a loyalist housing estate. They had to write down their hobbies and they were led to write down either wearing green for St. Patrick's Day or going to the parades on 12 July. I asked them why they did not write down Xbox and football because that is all they do. He turned up and said they talked about the thing they had to talk about for 30 seconds and then they talked about Xbox and football. In one sense I was really glad they were not avoiding the issue in those schemes because I take my kids to St. Patrick's Day events and to the 12 July events because I am interested in all cultures and want to be friends with all of my neighbours but it has very much outgrown the kids' lives. I do not know what that would look like - Catholic, Protestant or other, depending on the context. I tick all kinds of boxes. I do not think it is actually meaningful to our lives now.