Former two-weight boxing world champion Carl Frampton attended loyalist bonfires as a child, and he attended them as an adult.
Frampton, who took up the sport as a seven-year-old in Tiger’s Bay in Belfast, remains respectful of the Protestant and unionist traditions he grew up with but is repulsed by the burning of Irish flags, effigies and placards of politicians.
“It was going on way before I was born, the burning of politicians’ placards, anyone from Sinn Féin and the Irish flag. It was wrong then, and it’s still totally wrong now.
“I want to make this clear, I’m not against going to bonfires, and enjoying the day. What I am against is this hatred of burning flags and effigies that does absolutely nobody any good. It needs to be condemned in the strongest possible way by politicians, otherwise, it’s just a constant cycle of hatred.
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“You see kids with KAT painted on them. Kill all Taigs ... When I was a kid you’d hear Kill all Huns and now you think that there is someone teaching those children that hatred.”
He describes the death of John Steele, a man in his 30s, who fell while constructing a bonfire in Larne last weekend, as a “very sad tragedy from a freak accident”.
[ Man dies after fall from bonfire in Northern IrelandOpens in new window ]
The retired boxer believes that the sport gave him a more rounded view of society. His coach, the late Billy McKee in Midland Amateur Boxing Club was an early mentor, who kept his young prospect away from the annual summer riots that sucked in many of his friends. Through boxing, Frampton travelled all over Ireland and became firm friends with the Olympian Paddy Barnes who grew up in a republican estate.
“Last summer there were flare-ups and riots and I saw a lot of the people in the middle of them were kids. That is something that never seems to change. Kids are doing it because there’s nothing positive to do in those areas,” Frampton says.
“People think it’s a cop-out to say this, but honestly, I’ve lived this life, and in these working-class areas there’s absolutely nothing to do for these young kids. They want excitement and on both sides, there are adults that are orchestrating it.”
Frampton is a passionate promoter of the concept of integrated education in Northern Ireland. He grew up with other Protestant children and was educated with them. Catholic children were living the same segregated life in nearby estates. He believes that by educating children of different faiths together, there is an opportunity to break the cycle of distrust and tension that continues in Northern Ireland, 24 years on from the Belfast Agreement.
“There’s only 7.5 per cent of the schools that are integrated here. That’s absolutely tiny. There are huge challenges ahead to getting more schools involved. I want to have more conversations with principals in schools.
“My integration was through boxing, but I had the luck to do that. For kids who grow up in working class housing estates, to not be integrated, there’s no options or very few and that’s not their fault. It’s going to be very hard, to have these idiots in their estates spouting hatred about Orange or Fenian bastards. It needs to change.
“It’s a mad thought process, that kids are segregated because of religion, or cultural background. It’s not even religion, I don’t think nobody cares about the theological differences, most don’t even go to church. It comes down to political ideology: loyalist or republican.”
Frampton’s old school, Glengormley High School in the predominantly Protestant area of Newtownabbey was granted integrated status earlier this year.
“I was really delighted to see my old high school become integrated, although I’ll stress that was nothing to do with me, and down to the hard work of many others.”
“When the kids are mixing together from an early age it can’t be anything but beneficial for Northern Ireland. It can be so powerful. People need options, with only 7.5% of the schools available, it’s going to be tough.”
Referring to his own background, Frampton says: “I was born into a working-class area, I suppose some people would call it poverty although I didn’t feel that way and still don’t. It’s a very different upbringing for my kids. They don’t see the things that I saw and thank God for that. I’m very proud of Tiger’s Bay, and where I came from. I’m also proud of most of the people that come from there.
“When I was a kid, I wasn’t able to think rationally about things and how they are in Northern Ireland. I went to bonfires as a kid and I enjoyed them. They were there as part of a tradition that I grew up with.”
Frampton says he thought about leaving Northern Ireland last summer, “due to the trouble that could have potentially flared up on the streets, I never want my kids to grow up with that.
“But mostly, I love this place, I never really want to leave for the rest of my life. I absolutely hate the word celebrity, but if you’re a known person with an influence that can create a positive society then I feel that you have a serious responsibility to try to do something good with it.
“It’s not right, but sports people are looked at differently than say a successful finance person or business person at home. I know that’s not fair, but that’s the reality. I think with that profile I have and my story, people think they know you. I like people and I like talking to them. I’m on the same wavelength as the kids I am engaging with. I’m not ego-driven, I’ll just go in and chat to the kids and I get on. I’m from the same areas and lived the same life.”