The history of mostly separate education for Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland is a complicated one, existing alongside discriminatory and segregated employment, marriage and housing laws. In Michelle Gallen's Factory Girls, school is one of the most significant areas where the period of intense sectarian conflict between Protestants and Catholics known as the Troubles (1968-1998) imposes on the daily lives of those who have little agency — the children of Northern Ireland.

Though Catholic protagonist Maeve Murray attended a nominally integrated school (in other words, one that accepted both Catholic and Protestant students), she notes that this was only for show, as in practice Catholics would not dare attend a Protestant school and vice versa.

Until the late 18th century, Catholic children in Ireland were banned from formal education. Instead, they attended their own "hedge schools," which were illegal and seen as a threat to the political and social ...