IRISH President Michael D Higgins called on Saturday for an end to segregated education in the north of Ireland, saying it can no longer be justified following days of loyalist violence.

He said that educating pupils based on their religious background  is “abandoning them to parcels of hate and memory that others are manipulating.

“Who in 2021 can justify the teaching of children separately on the basis of belief?” Mr Higgins asked. “Is it important, if you talk about an ethical present and an ambitious future, that you deal with it?”

Just 7 per cent of pupils in the north of Ireland attend integrated schools, with the rest segregated along Catholic and Protestant lines.

The Irish president said that the problem of social deprivation must also be addressed, arguing that this was partly why so many young people had been drawn into the protests.

“Why has it taken so long to put in resources of renewal where you have streets where shops are abandoned?” he asked.

Mr Higgins was appearing on state broadcaster RTE’s Late Late Show to mark his 80th birthday, which he celebrated today.

There have been days of violence on the streets of Belfast, Derry and other cities in the north of Ireland, which police said was likely to have been fuelled by individual members of loyalist paramilitary organisations.

According to sources, protests are set to resume tomorrow in the form of band parades, which will not be published in advance in a bid to catch the police off guard and block major roads.