Paul Givan, Stormont’s DUP Minister for Education, is a creationist. This is very well known. In 2007, as a councillor in Lisburn, he famously succeeded in getting the council to write to all the secondary schools in its area, calling on them to teach creationism in science lessons. The DUP confirmed this was party policy, and raised it at Stormont with the then minister for education, Sinn Féin’s Caitríona Ruane. It caused “a tussle of biblical proportions”, to quote a Belfast Telegraph headline.

So it is understandable that Givan is the subject of suspicion from liberal quarters today. He is frequently accused of fighting a conservative culture war. Yet, suspicions against him have been authoritatively debunked by the courts in recent months.

Last January, Givan rejected an application from two state schools in Bangor, Co Down, to convert to integrated status. This decision was widely condemned, particularly by the Alliance Party. Some reaction implied the Minister was hostile to integration through sectarian prejudice.

Objectors brought an application for judicial review, and in October........

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