A Catholic bishop has criticised President Barack Obama for appearing to blame sectarian divisions in the North of Ireland on denominational education.

In a speech delivered in Belfast on Monday ahead of the G8 summit, President Obama suggested that separate schools for Catholics and Protestants copperfastened divisions between the two communities.

But Bishop Donal McKeown, the auxiliary bishop for Down and Connor, accused Mr Obama of bringing a “hackneyed analysis to bear on the problems of Northern Ireland, the Irish Catholic reports.

Reacting to the speech, Bishop McKeown said the president’s “echoing the Protestant/Catholic caricature that has actually receded into the background in Northern Ireland was disappointing”.

Hailing the North’s advances in peacebuilding, Mr Obama stated that “if towns remain divided, if Catholics have their schools and buildings and Protestants have theirs, if we can’t see ourselves in one another and fear or resentment are allowed to harden, that too encourages division and discourages cooperation”.

While acknowledging the “great encouragement” offered by the speech, Bishop McKeown insisted divisions in Northern Ireland do not lie within schools.  

Schools, rather, “have shown themselves remarkably capable and creative when it comes peace-making” and “it is the Catholic schools in Northern Ireland which are among the most racially and linguistically mixed” in an increasingly culturally diverse community.

He added: “It needs to be stated that it is adults outside schools who promote mistrust for their own political and personal agendas.  

“The politicians in the Executive have no shared view of where Northern Ireland will belong in 10 years’ time. Thus a simplistic denominational vocabulary fails to do justice to where we are.

“We all welcome the president’s presence – but would encourage his speech writers to support a less hackneyed analysis of our situation and prospects.”