WHY is the Education Authority (EA) asking teachers if they are loyalist or republican?

The explanation lies with Northern Ireland’s unique laws on ‘political opinion’ – one of our nine equality categories, alongside religion, race, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender, disability, and being with or without dependents.

Political opinion was originally intended as a short-hand for unionist or nationalist, so the law made no attempt to define it, creating an almost limitless legal minefield.

The courts have widened it out to mean any subject of public debate or government policy, apart from advocating violence.

Alex Kane: History means there will always be a ‘UK dimension’ in Ireland

Brian Feeney: Partition is the problem and unity is the only solution

The gay cake case a decade ago demonstrated the implications.

Discrimination was alleged not just against a gay customer but against a customer with an opinion on gay marriage. It could have been any opinion, for or against.

In Britain, the courts have banned political discrimination against people if opinions count as “weighty philosophical beliefs”, but this is an evolution of laws against religious discrimination and sets a much higher bar than the........

© The Irish News