One thing we’re used to in Northern Ireland is the slow, muddy, quagmire of change in education, most poignantly of which has been the transfer test fiasco that has brooded over society like Banquo’s ghost.

However, given the fact that we have multiple education systems and, like the proverbial chicken crossing the road, we’ve had them because we’ve always had them, rapid blue-sky thinking is not what most of our esteemed politicians are noted for.

With this backdrop, we had the charming and cultured President Michael D. Higgins causing controversy in Enniskillen recently when he made the huge mistake of suggesting radical change.

I say “charming and cultured” not ironically; in the past, I have met the man, had a long discussion with him, and found very knowledgeable not only about education, but also arts and culture.

In case you weren’t aware of President Higgins’ visit to Enniskillen on Thursday, February 17, every news bulletin in the province led with the story of what he said about our education set-up.

In short, he made some controversial remarks about our imperfect-perfect educational dinosaur while addressing an All-Island Women's Forum and the National Women's Council of Ireland, with a speech entitled: ‘Women's Voices in Peacebuilding: The Unfinished Work of the Peace Process.’

After those long titles, I’m surprised he had the energy to make any speeches at all, but he did, and in it claimed that our school system is “shamefully ... overwhelmingly segregated”.

In his address, he also reminded the audience that “93 per cent of schools in Northern Ireland remain segregated, meaning that most young people are educated in either a state-funded school that predominantly attracts Protestant families, or a state-funded school maintained by the Catholic Church”, saying “young people are separated in the very place where they learn and build relations”.

He also added that students in Northern Ireland were segregated “not only by the schools they attend, but also by the languages they speak and the sports they play: where some schools offer Gaelic football and hurling, others provide rugby or cricket, usually exclusively”.

Unusually, President Higgins – in a few brief minutes on our fair Erne’s shores – managed to do what very few people are able to do: upset both sides of our political divide at the same time.

Was he right, and did he have a point? Well, although this isn’t a fence-sitting analysis, my view is that privately he is probably licking his lips with glee because again, he also has done what few people have done: opened up a genuine debate by going right to the core of the issue.

From the Unionist perspective, President Higgins has fallen foul of both Protestant churches and most shades of orange politics on three main counts.

Firstly, he appears to be blaming state schools for being segregated; they, of course, would argue they because most of the Catholic children go to Catholic schools, the rest are obviously Protestant/Other, because that’s who’s left.

Secondly, as Robbie Butler – the Ulster Unionist Party’s education spokesperson – has pointed out, President Higgins has failed to identify the main ‘blockage’, in that state-run schools, across all sectors, fail to attract pupils from non-Protestant or non-perceived Protestant backgrounds.

“The reality is that what Michael D. Higgins sees as an issue in Northern Ireland mirrors the different sectors in place in the Republic. I would invite him to look at the success of the controlled sector here as a template,” said Mr. Butler in a BBC interview.

Finally, to say it as it is, many Unionists will view him as a foreign leader poking his nose into Northern Irish affairs, especially given the fact that his father was a member of the (old) IRA – actually a lieutenant with the Charleville Company, 3rd Battalion, 2nd Cork Brigade.

To add insult to injury, and more recently, he also refused to come to Armagh for a cross-community service to mark the Centenary of the formation of Northern Ireland.

In short, Unionists will ask: who is he to advise on segregation?

This criticism has been made by the Loyalist Communities Council, who added: “Mr. Higgins should reflect on the Republic’s lack of integrated education”, and that a “radical and progressive” education system proposed by Stormont’s first government was stymied “by the complete refusal” of the Catholic Church to relinquish their control of the education of Catholic children.

From the Catholic education sector’s point of view, the main opposition to President Higgins’ viewpoints come from all angles of CCMS schools, including most notably their Chair, Bishop Donal McKeown.

For Bishop McKeown, President Higgins has gone too far, and he pointed the finger right back, accusing President Higgins of creating a “simplistic caricature” and added that “parents are choosing schools because of the quality of their teaching and their exam results”, quoting the 52 per cent of newcomer children in Northern Ireland who decide to go to Catholic schools.

For CCMS’s Chief Executive, Gerry Campbell, the potency of what President Higgins said has garnered stinging criticism, calling his remarks “offensive” and “unhelpful”, going on to say, in a recent press statement, that “the word ‘segregated’ is actually quite offensive; it is a word we take offence to – Catholic schools are open to everybody,” he added, challenging President Higgins to visit a Catholic-run school in the province.

What has come out of this is – well, nothing, really. As I see it, there will still be state schools and church schools for a long time to come, as well as integrated schools who have their own ethos and culture. President Higgins has had his card marked and life will go on.

Of course, CCMS, the Catholic hierarchy and their Unionist and Protestant counterparts are not happy.

To speak out against the status quo means an open knife wound in the amount of control both sectors have enjoyed, so for people like President Higgins to launch the odd metaphorical salvo against the system does no harm at all.

The politicians and church leaders have bared their teeth, and President Higgins has gone back to the sanctuary of the Phoenix Park in Dublin.

Thereby hangs a tale: the real perpetrators of segregation aren’t schools or society – it’s us, happily ambling along, accepting what has always happened because it’s just so, so comfortable.

Of course our schools are good and preach inclusion, but that’s not the point; real change takes a lot more courage.