21/09/2025
It seems that Protestant kids are being let down all over the country by our elected reps.
What do we elect them for?
Where is the investment in OUR communities and OUR children?
Protestant schools in Kilkeel left behind.
With taxes at their highest rate since the 1940s, you’d be forgiven for assuming we have a top-quality educational experience for our children. After all, education is supposed to be the great equaliser. This is especially the case when we constantly hear the words “shared future,” “equality,” and “diversity” being proclaimed by so-called politicians.
Yet many in Kilkeel’s Protestant Unionist Loyalist community see these words as merely a show for the cameras. Kilkeel is just one example of a repeated pattern: underfunded Protestant schools, while Nationalist-majority schools receive state-of-the-art facilities.
In our town, controlled schools — historically serving the Protestant community — are under pressure on every front. Kilkeel Primary School has been oversubscribed for three consecutive years. Eighty families applied each year, but in 2023/24 only 74 children were admitted, and in 2024/25 just 77. The school operates with no waiting list. If a child doesn’t get in, families are left scrambling for alternative places — often miles away. For working-class families with limited transport, this is a real barrier.
Kilkeel High School faces similar challenges. In 2022/23, it had more applicants than its admissions cap of 135, yet still squeezed in 137 pupils, including those with special educational needs, stretching already thin resources. Enrollment dipped below capacity over the next two years, but staff and building costs do not decrease when numbers fall.
On top of this, the school’s buildings are in poor condition: mould has been reported on walls, classrooms are outdated, and the canteen can no longer fully support the number of pupils who use it. A schedule has been introduced to limit which year groups can access the canteen on any given day. Basic health and safety requirements are also not being met. Protestant pupils are expected to learn in conditions that would not be tolerated elsewhere.
In contrast, St Louis Grammar School, the Catholic-maintained grammar in Kilkeel, paints a very different picture. It has capacity for 130 pupils, yet demand has been falling: 122 applied in 2022/23, 100 in 2023/24, and 97 in 2024/25. Every applicant was admitted. There are no waiting lists, no overcrowding, and no scramble for places. Crucially, St Louis has been approved for a brand-new school building, a multi-million-pound investment that will provide modern, state-of-the-art facilities in the near future.
The same pattern is visible at Shimna Integrated College in Newcastle, another Catholic-majority school that has already received a new building. Meanwhile, Kilkeel High — a controlled school serving mainly Protestant families — has been left behind. Its pupils sit in classrooms with poor heating and train in gyms with mould on the walls, while neighbouring schools either enjoy or have secured modern facilities that meet today’s health and safety standards.
The imbalance is glaring. Controlled schools in Kilkeel are overcrowded and deteriorating, yet receive no additional support. Catholic schools nearby operate below capacity and enjoy guaranteed capital investment. The result is simple: children from Protestant families, particularly those in working-class areas, face greater obstacles in securing a safe, healthy environment in which to learn.
This issue is not limited to Kilkeel. Across Northern Ireland, controlled schools often serve more deprived communities but must contend with capped enrollment, frozen funding formulas, and decaying facilities. Maintained and integrated schools, by contrast, can operate below capacity and secure new buildings.
The PUL children of Kilkeel deserve better than mouldy walls, outdated equipment, and an environment that suggests their future matters less than that of their Nationalist counterparts. It is time for equal investment and fair treatment so that every child in Northern Ireland has access to a safe, modern, and supportive educational environment.
