Andersonstown News 10/17/97 Pt.1 of 2 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source:Beananti@aol.com Oct 18, 1997 -- Fr Des Wilson column -- Editorial -- The end of an era at the Andersonstown News -- CALIFORNIAN DREAMIN' OF PEACE -- For Sale: Dairy Farm -- MAIRTMN S MUILLEOIR ************************************************ Andersonstown News - Thursday, 16 October 1997 ************************************************ A Lesson for Mr Blair Fr Des Wilson column Perhaps Mr Blair will take a lesson from one startling fact - he and his officials are more likely to be received with courtesy by nationalists and republicans in Ireland than by his own British loyalist supporters. Perhaps the lesson may be deadened in his head by civil servants who will assure him that the people who shouted abuse at him were an exception to the generally received rule that British loyalists are decent, God fearing, law abiding, generous people sorely tried by evil nationalists and republicans. The level of insult hurled at Blair as he took refuge - significantly in a bank which was boycotted for years with charges of discrimination - was such as can only come from people brought up to believe they have a right to abuse others. Perhaps when he arrived in the bank Mr. Blair called for a glass of Bushmills whiskey to complete his experience of what it means to live in a society where commerce, religion and politics have been made to produce the shouting mob which greeted him in East Belfast and where decent people need boycotts of banks and booze to protect themselves. Blair should realise however that what he experienced, surrounded by a protective wall of police and other armed bodyguards, was what decent people have experienced here for the lifetime of the oldest among us. Such good people were not surrounded by a protective wall of armed bodyguards paid by the state, instead the armed bodyguards were among the attackers. One must wonder if Mr. Blair is capable of taking such a lesson. It has not been proved that he is. Nor has it been proved that the secretary Ms. Mowlam is capable of knowing what to do when the kissing turns to hissing and the people whom she and her predecessors have treated with kid gloves as if they were special now turn on their protectors and beat them with rubber gloves as if they were unclean. The riot in East Belfast which tried to drive Blair out displayed the same zealotry that saw thousands of Catholics driven from that area since 1969. One does not expect Blair to understand this or do anything about it. After all, they are supporters of the Union. But what one can expect him to understand is that a regime which cannot protect a Prime Minister from his own most favoured and featherbedded supporters is a regime which ought to be stopped in its tracks. Too weak to manage, too greedy to quit, too ignorant even to understand what modern democratic needs are. That anyone should have a problem greeting the elected representative of 43 per cent of democratic people with a handshake is a sign of cowardice, weakness and total failure to appreciate that the will of the people is paramount and must be obeyed. It is a clear sign also that the evolution of the British system towards a modern democracy is so slow, so rude, so devoid of appreciation of what political decency means that we cannot afford to have truck with it. We have to escape from it. There will never be political, economic or social progress for Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, humanists or anybody else in Ireland while London still has control of their affairs. We have tried every inducement, we have tried every argument, we have treated the envoys of London with courtesy while their own supporters would willingly have broken poles over their heads. And with what result? With the result that they are still making up their minds whether we have a right to be heard and treated with courtesy through our own freely chosen representatives. This problem is made more severe by the attitude of political activists in Dublin. In a recent RTE programme a journalist demanded to know from Mary McAleese how she voted up here. Nobody has a right to ask that question and surely the person who puts it should be challenged. But it has now become common practice in RTE to make such demands. Even the relatively polite Marian Finucane radio programme demands of people whether they belong to a political party or not and if so which one. It is only a small step to asking how they voted. One by one the democratic principles are eroded as the country gets further and further into confrontational politics, law, education and much else besides. The Dail is confrontational, one party confronting another in anger, the law is confrontational as anyone attending a case in Dublin's Four Courts can see from the rudeness shown to witnesses, the press is confrontational, demanding of politicians and everyone else to answer questions exactly as required by interviewers. Some Church officials were confrontational as long as they could get away with it and some of them still are. A confrontational society. Which need not have been so. We have a long way to go towards a respectful democratic way of life. Perhaps Blair's reception in East Belfast will teach some of his advisers how corrosive and damaging to everybody has been the regime which his people created here and which Dublin is now copying - to the people's great cost. ****************************************************** WE SAY Hands off our culture The shiny new Parades Commission is set to be unveiled some time soon - possibly tomorrow (Friday) - and the fear among nationalists is that Irish culture is set to come under the remit of the revamped body. Let us be quite clear about this: Secretary of State Mo Mowlam can hand whatever she wants to commission chairman Alastair Graham, but the plain fact of the matter is that no government controlled quango is going to tell those who cherish their Irish heritage how, when or where they can promote or practice it. Ever. It might be useful to clear up once and for all the central misapprehension that lies at the heart of the British Government's willingness even to consider such an outrageous proposal. Over a G&T in the comfortable chairs of the Downing Street drawing room, it might seem like a neat wheeze to Mo Mowlam and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to keep the David Trimbles of this world happy by creating some sort of equivalence between Irish culture and Orange parades, but if they persist in their folly they will not be long in finding out that this is a deeply insulting and highly dangerous perversion of the facts. Orangeism is no more British or Protestant culture than Ku Klux Klannism is the culture of the southern states of America. Certainly, there are sizeable sections of the unionist population which subscribe to Orangeism and its obsession with decrepit and sectarian notions of 'fatal Popish doctrines', and its violent insistence on parading even where it's not welcome. But that doesn't make it right. On the other hand, there is nary a nationalist in the north of Ireland whose life is not touched by one or more of the many and varied aspects of our native cultural heritage, whether they're watching or playing a game of football, hurling, camogie or handball, speaking or learning the Irish language, reading the poetry of Seamus Heaney or the prose of Seamus Deane, playing or listening to Irish music, thrilling to the Riverdance on video or attending a Ciilm dance at their local community centre. To try and put restrictions on any or all of these is a move whose audacity would have had King Canute gasping in admiration. Too many people have suffered over the years for the right to celebrate their culture for that right to be signed away as some sort of tawdry quid pro quo by people who wouldn't know a bit of culture if it jumped up and bit them on the tsin. From the hedge schools and penal laws of the 17th century to the tenacious battle of the last few years for official recognition of the outstanding quality of Irish medium education, we have had to fight tooth and nail to get where we are today. There is certainly still a long way to go - Mo Mowlam and the rest better understand there is no going back. It is not a threat, rather a bald statement of fact, to say that no-one is going to put restrictions on how this community cherishes its culture and if the massed ranks of the British political and military establishment thinks it can mobilise in support of unionist demands for restrictions to be placed on the GAA, for instance - the largest spectator sport in the north by a country mile - without serious implications, then it had better think again. The vexed issue of Orange parades is one that is going to have to be dealt with and the British Government has two choices in the matter. It can acknowledge that we are on the cusp of a new millennium and strive to persuade the Orangemen - and their Unionist supporters - of the simple and undeniable principle that while they are perfectly free to march, beat their drums and rail against Romish ruses and Papish perfidy if they feel like it, they may not do so where Papists are liable to take offence. Or it can pretend that a narrow, bigoted and anachronistic outpouring of sectarian bile - of which Connswater Shopping Centre for 20 minutes on Monday was a telling microcosm for Tony Blair - deserves to be put on a level with a thriving and constantly evolving cultural treasure trove which has over the centuries made a geographically insignificant country an acknowledged world leader in the things that make life worth living. ******************************************************* The end of an era at the Andersonstown News This week saw the end of an era at the Andersonstown News with the retirement of the paper's Financial Director, Siamus Mac Seain. 60-year-old Seamus joined the paper 20 years ago at a time when it had only one full-time employee and he has been central to the paper's relentless growth over that period. The paper now employs over 50 full and part-time and is one of the country's foremost weekly newspapers with a readership of 90,000 in Belfast, the rest of the country and overseas. A keen political analyst, Siamus also doubled up as the paper's leader writer and contributed much to the committed political stance adopted by the Andersonstown News over the years. Andersonstown News founder and new managing director Basil McLaughlin paid warm tribute to Siamus's commitment and dedication to the Andersonstown News over the past two decades. "Siamus's initiative and capacity for hard work were absolutely crucial to the development of the paper since he joined," said Basil, "and he has been a key figure in its success as a commercial venture. His input and his influence are going to be badly missed and we wish him all the very best in his retirement." A lifelong activist in the Irish language movement in Belfast, Siamus has been a prime mover in some of the most important Irish language projects in the north. He was the driving force behind the first all-Irish nursery school to be set up in the north in 1965, while he and his wife Brighid were the first people to move into the Shaw's Road Gaeltacht in 1969. He was a founder of the first all-Irish primary school in 1971 and helped launch the first all-Irish secondary school in 1989 - Meanscoil Feirste, of which he was also Financial Director. In co-operation with Gearsid S Caireallain, current President of the Gaelic League, he set up Cultzrlann MacAdaim/S Fiaich in 1991, the Falls Road Irish cultural centre which has left its mark on all aspects of Irish language life in the city since. In 1994, Siamus went to Dublin to be presented with the prestigious Gradam an Phiarsaigh in recognition of his work on behalf of the Irish language. And it's somehow fitting that Siamus's first connection with the Andersonstown News was as an Irish language correspondent with the paper when it was first set up in 1972 ******************************************************** CALIFORNIAN DREAMIN' OF PEACE On a day when the whole world craned its neck to catch a glimpse of the legendary handshake between Tony Blair and Gerry Adams, Californian Senator and longtime political activist Tom Hayden gave Andersonstown News a visitor's view of the inside of Stormont, writes Hannah Hayes. "It was fantastic to be able to be there," said Hayden. "The peace process is still at a stage when people avert their eye, and a glance or a gesture holds so much meaning that handshakes are parcelled out very discriminately." Hayden, who is promoting his new book Irish Hunger: Personal Reflections on the Legacy of the Famine, stopped in Belfast after touring Dublin, Monaghan and Derry. Hayden observed that the talks were still at an early stage where the "euphoria" of getting there has not quite faded. "The first phase of shaking hands ends and then there's the next phase of getting perspective and laying things down and eventually moving on towards a conclusion. A lot of relationships have to be thawed. Small things like a handshake or a hello are thought to carry a tremendous amount of weight." However, Hayden expressed overall optimism - despite the "almost physical chill in the air" and the segregation of political parties. "Peace drips slowly," he said, stressing the potential for relationships, despite the "frosty approach" adopted by some political parties. Hayden is no stranger to political controversy. In 1969 he attracted world-wide media attention as a member of The Chicago Seven who were tried and acquitted for inciting a riot at the Democratic National Convention. He later went on to become a Senator in California and has been active in environmental issues. His book is a collection of essays and poems on the Famine by prominent Irish and American authors. Hayden, whose great-grandparents emigrated from Monaghan during and after the Great Hunger, spent years tracing his family history and pondering the disastrous effects of the Famine. He has also now sponsored a bill to include the Irish Famine in the California State curriculum. Having passed both houses, the bill needs only the Governor's signature to pass into law. Hayden says he leaves Belfast with the feeling that "the political alignment has never been so favourable for a settlement. President Clinton is very committed to the peace process, and with London, Washington and hopefully Dublin equally committed - combined with the successes of Sinn Fiin and the SDLP in the last elections - it's as good as it's going to get." But he is equally convinced that much more could be done to - the release of prisoners, an apology for Bloody Sunday and increased investment - to "inject hope into the peace process". ****************************************************** For Sale: Dairy Farm One of West Belfast's biggest shopping centres has gone on the market at an asking price of almost #2m - #3.5m less than it cost to build, writes Hannah Hayes. And while the managers of the Dairy Farm Centre and the Department of the Environment both insist that the sale won't be to the detriment of local people, some community workers aren't so sure. "Sadly the Dairy Farm Centre wasn't as inclusive of the local community as it should have been," said Andrie Murphy of the Greater Poleglass and Twinbrook Forum. "If they had have properly assessed the needs of local people, they wouldn't be in this position today." The 80,000 sq ft facility was built in 1991 at a cost of #5.4m. Last night the International Fund for Ireland, which part-funded the development, said they had agreed to the centre being marketed but would have the right to veto any sale. Glenwood Enterprises, which manages the shopping complex, declined to comment on reports that the sale would be used to pay off mammoth DoE debts related to the original construction costs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Scrap controversial Parades Commission - Residents Nationalists residents' groups opposed to Orange parades through Catholic districts are set this morning to give a dramatic thumbs-down to the controversial Parades Commission writes Robin Livingstone It's expected that an umbrella body representing 16 nationalist resident's group across the north will call for the scrapping of the Parades Commission at a press conference on the Lower Ormeau Road - scene of some of the bitterest parade confrontations in recent years. It is thought the main reason behind the move is an increasing ******************************************************** MAIRTMN S MUILLEOIR Of silver clouds and strawberry gateaux It's an ill wind...I had to admit at the City Hall knees-up I gatecrashed on Tuesday night. The occasion was the visit to Belfast of a high- powered US trade mission and among the guests of honour (i.e. those unfortunate enough to be landed at my table) were Tim Dougherty from Pittsburgh - now an honorary West Belfast citizen after one year in business on the Falls - and Kash Vanover of First-Tel Communications in Indiana who are both archetypal can-do type of guys. In between begging sixties icon Tom Hayden to sign my napkin, I spent most of the evening selling vacant work unit space in West Belfast to our American cousins (every cloud etc). Seems that they were all set to locate in the industrial east of our fair city when they saw Tony Blair receive a traditional unionist thumping - sorry, welcome - from the area's MP Peter Robinson and a bunch of neanderthal ne'er-do-wells attracted to the Connswater shopping centre by the prospect not of a sale but a sellout. Serendipity - if we are to believe Monday afternoon shopper Pauline Gilmore - had brought together a more unpleasant bunch of bargain-hunters than has been seen in one shopping complex since the Christmas Eve tipplers battled it out over the last turkey during all-night opening at Curley's. And the PR geniuses who directed Tony Blair to Connswater in the wake of his Stormont handshake may never know just how lucky they were that their man wasn't hospitalised as a result of his journey to the east. For leading the verbal charge was none other than DUP councillor Robin Cleland who last year performed his party piece - posing as an angry extra in Michael Caine's Zulu - when he attacked RUC lines in Lurgan with a flagpole. The hammering he could have given Tony if he had have got his hands on a Cuisine de France baguette doesn't bear thinking about. Anyway, I had just sold the Divis Tower to Ellis Mottur of the US Commerce Department (a guy's gotta make a shilling somehow) when the Loyal Toast was called. And there's me thinking that it was all change at City Hall. Unfortunately, there's enough kick left in the old dinosaur to get those SDLP councillors on their feet to toast the Queen. However, no doubt even they realise how ludicrous it all appears to the visiting Irish-American businessmen most of whom opted for a convenient smoke break rather than get caught up in archaic formalities more suited to 1690 than 1997. One or two of our Yankee cousins did consider making a more formal objection but, hey, if that's how the people of East Belfast treat their own Prime Minister what sort of a hiding would they give a bolshie American investor? That was my first trip back to the Dome of Delight since I rode off into the sunset in May and I was delighted to see that since my departure they have brought the Carson Table to City Hall - complete with Connswater Shopping Centre-size Union Jack. Cynics might say that the last thing the Dome needed was another Union Jack but let's be philosophical about these things, it was the perfect place for those of us were avoiding the Loyal Toast to eat our strawberry gateau and sip our coffee. The good folk on the Shankill who lent City Hall the table for the Ulster Covenant display can rest easy, three or four washes will remove the strawberry stain and a quick coat of varnish will hide the coffee rings. The only down side toan otherwise convivial evening's entertainment was that I had to forego the pleasure of sitting in McEnaney's, knocking back pints and watching the Celtic match on Sky. But then it could have been worse. Like poor Sean McKnight, I could have spent dinner sitting beside unionist councillor Michael McGimpsey - a lovely man, let it be said, but one possessing all the charisma of a word processor. continued in part 2... ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytire-10.20.97-23:59:44-11455