The Northern Ireland Council for Integrated Education (NICIE) is excited and delighted to announce Connor Phillips and Holly Hamilton as the newest NICIE patrons offering their support for Integrated Education.
Connor and Holly are both natives of Northern Ireland. Holly is from Greyabbey in County Down while Connor hails from Jonesborough, South Armagh. The young, talented and ambitious couple made the move to England together a few years ago.
Connor Phillips is a multi-award-winning television and radio presenter as well as a live event host. A familiar face and voice across the UK and Ireland, he’s appeared on BBC’s The One Show, CNN, MTV, ITV’s Tonight Programme and UTV Television as well as the former host of the biggest Breakfast Radio Show in Northern Ireland on Cool FM.
Holly Hamilton is an award-winning television presenter and reporter with the BBC where she’s a regular face on BBC Breakfast on BBC One, the Victoria Derbyshire programme on BBC Two and the BBC News Channel. Earlier this year, she also presented live from the BBC Studios with Jason Mohammed and Claire Balding during the Commonwealth Games as well as reporting live from Wimbledon and the European Championships in Glasgow.
Since moving to England four years ago, Connor and Holly have created a home there for themselves but the newly married couple have not forgotten their roots and are particularly interested in maintaining links with their native homes. Integrated Education is a cause of particular significance to Connor and Holly as they both feel passionate about the benefits it offers for young people to be educated together in one school regardless of community background or religious belief.
Commenting on their decision to publicly offer support for Integrated Education, Connor and Holly said, “We are delighted to say that we both fully support Integrated Education in Northern Ireland. It is great to see children and young people from all communities having the opportunity to learn together under one roof on a daily basis. That’s what integrated education offers, children can make friends and get to know one another no matter what their community background is. We believe that this will make a big difference to their lives.”
Connor and Holly join an impressive list of celebrity patrons of Integrated Education which includes Carl Frampton MBE, Liam Neeson and Sir Kenneth Branagh, to name but a few.
Commenting on the exciting news of Connor and Holly’s patronage of Integrated Education, NICIE Chief Executive Officer, Roisin Marshall said, “To say we are thrilled is an understatement, we in NICIE are honoured to have Connor and Holly join us as patrons and supporters of the important work we do. Integrated Education offers opportunities for young people to build more meaningful relationships with one another, to explore difference and engage in genuine discussion on community background. We are very passionate about educating children from different communities together and work hard to ensure as many Catholic, Protestant and other families as possible, can avail of Integrated Education for their children. We look forward to sharing this journey with Connor and Holly.”
Paying tribute to the work of all of those involved in Integrated Education, Connor and Holly said, “We are delighted to offer our support to Integrated Education. We look forward to doing whatever we can in the future to help NICIE with the vital work they do for parents, schools and young people to help bring more communities together in Northern Ireland and make it a better place for everyone.”
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