Andersonstown News 2-Oct-97 Part I Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit source: Beananti@aol.com Thu, 2 Oct 1997 -- Travellers group hits back after site attack -- Clampdown call as Poleglass is blitzed by German bangers -- Former barracks site is the apple of Adams' eye -- Bookshelf -- Fr. Des Wilson ************************************************ Andersonstown News - Thursday, 2 October 1997 ************************************************ Travellers group hits back after site attack Last week's attack on the foundations of a proposed halting site for Travellers on Hannahstown Hill vividly demonstrates the depth of prejudice which exists against an indigenous ethnic minority in this city, the Northern Ireland Council for Travelling People said yesterday. Last week we exclusively revealed that saboteurs opposed to the site had ripped out foundations laid by Belfast City Council workers. And the NICTP has rejected claims that serviced sites for Travellers are lowering the value of private housing situated near them. "The market determines the value of houses," said NICTP director Margaret Donaghy, in a statement to the Andersonstown News, "and if Hawthorn Glen residents read the rest of the Andersonstown News they will have visible evidence that closeness to a Traveller site has no bearing whatsoever on house sale prices. Houses being built near Glen Road Heights are valued at #72,500, while houses built near the Monagh by-pass site are selling for prices well in excess of what they sold for when built two years ago. Indeed, the developer at Hawthorn Glen clearly decided that the proximity of a Travellers site at Colin Glen would not adversely impact on the market value of this development - a view reinforced by the residents. Unfortunately, many Traveller families do not have the option of buying for reasons of benefit dependency and low incomes." The NICTP say that delays in building the last two of four planned sites in West Belfast is leading to severe difficulties for Travellers here. "There are around 1,500 members of the Travelling community in Northern Ireland and 800 of these are located in and around the greater Belfast area," said Margaret Donaghy. "The only serviced site provision for this community are two sites at Colin Glen and Glen Road Heights which can take 42 families between them. "There is major overcrowding at the Colin Glen site as that community continues to grow. Over half of the Traveller families in this city are forced by a combination of prejudice and policy failure to live in squalor at the roadside without access to running water, lavatories or electricity. We can't complain about these conditions while continuing to deny - as evidently some residents at Hawthorn Glen want to - these people their rights as citizens to live in their own community in a culturally appropriate manner." The NICTP says it's disappointed that Belfast City Council appear to be backing down in the face of "the vocal prejudices of a few. "This is more than disquieting when the same council has since August responsibility under the new Race Relations Legislation for promoting good relations among the city's various ethnic minorities and settled people." ***************************************************** Clampdown call as Poleglass is blitzed by German bangers Poleglass and Twinbrook residents are being "terrorised" by teenage gangs armed with "super-bangers" so powerful they're banned from sale to anyone under-18. But Sinn Fiin councillor Ita Gray - who only recently highlighted the alarming rise in the use of pellet guns in the area - says the German- manufactured fireworks are being sold openly to children as young as ten. "Life is becoming unbearable in the run-in to Halloween," the Lisburn councillor told the Andersonstown News. "It was bad enough pensioners and young mothers being targeted with ordinary bangers but if these mega-bangers continue to be used, someone is going to be seriously injured." Bearing instructions written in German - which includes a message cautioning against their sale to anyone aged under 18 - the large bangers have been branded "lethal" by the local residents' association. "There are reports that some of the bangers were sold from shops locally and I am taking steps now to approach all shops to ensure they realise the dangers of these fireworks and stop their sale immediately," said the Sinn Fiin woman. "In recent days, some children have been taping several of the German super-bangers together and throwing them, grenade-style, at passing pensioners and young mothers picking up their children from school. I'm even more worried at the growing number of bangers being pushed through letterboxes. In one case in Laurelbank, a banger was forced through the letterbox and fell on to the hallway carpet. Only the swift action of the householder averted a tragedy." And Cllr Gray says she won't hesitate to ask Lisburn Council to withdraw trading licences from anyone found to be selling the German bangers. "It's only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured by these bangers," she added. "The only question is will the victim be one of the children using these dangerous devices or a local resident targeted by the banger gangs." Last night, the Poleglass Residents Association also condemned the "banger menace". "Only this week, four-year-old Joseph Quinn from Glenwood was hit on the head with a banger and was lucky to escape injury," said spokesman Peadar Cunningham. ******************************************************* Former barracks site is the apple of Adams' eye Community groups in West Belfast are joining forces with local MP Gerry Adams to stake a claim to the recently vacated Henry Taggart RUC barracks on the Springfield Road. And this week site owners the Police Authority acknowledged that they would be exploring a range of options over the disposal of the site. "We hope to make an announcement by the end of the year," said a spokesperson for the Authority. The Upper Springfield Development Trust - with over 70 staff the biggest employer in the Ballymurphy area - is already eyeing up the abandoned barracks as another location for its job creation actitivies and is linking up with other community bodies to consider joint usage of the area. That's an approach which is winning the approval of West Belfast MP Gerry Adams who yesterday visited the Henry Taggart site with local community representatives. "This barracks has been a blight on the landscape for over two decades," he said. "From behind its walls, British troops shot and killed local people, planned destructive raids and tortured detainees. Its demolition frees some land which should now be used to improve the quality of life of local residents. It appears to me the best way to determine future development is to arrange for an exhaustive economic development appraisal. This must be carried out in full consultation with the community." But the Sinn Fiin MP also fired a shot across the bows of British Government officials who have replaced the Henry Taggart barracks with a #5m "fortress" just yards away on the Springfield Road. "However welcome the demise of Henry Taggart might be, the scar left by its passing is overshadowed by a monstrous new military fortification," he added. "More money has been pumped into its construction than into any other single new facility in West Belfast in recent years. No local jobs have been created and no one has been taken off a growing housing list. Local communities are struggling for funding while the RUC spends millions on its militarisation strategy." ***************************************************** Bookshelf by Cal McCrystal Reflections on a Quiet Rebel by Cal McCrystal (Michael Joseph, #16) McCrystal's memoir of Belfast combines polemic with humour, anecdote with irony, and passes judgement on much of the recent history of the north without actually setting out to do so. "The difference between nationalists and unionists under the Stormont state was that nationalists had nothing to lose, unionists everything to lose", he concludes at the end of it all. Much of the book explores the relationship with his father, Charles, a gentle socialist who believed that his working class credentials would overcome the hostility of the unionist community, so much so that he moved into an East Belfast working class street. The response was predictable, and shocking to the gentle man and his family. First dog excrement, then the human variety, came through the letter box. The nearby RUC station should have acted as a defence, instead the police they depended on for solace raided the house continually, breaking the door down at dawn, smashing furniture, shouting obscenities at the youngsters as they dragged them from their beds and leaving with a torrent of sectarian taunts. The eventual retreat across the river to the more amenable Antrim Road district was plainly a relief to all concerned, even if it was in the middle of the Blitz. Young Cal and his brothers were free to develop their own ways, suffering the sudden death of their mother and enjoying their education at St Malachy's College. A printer who taught himself Esperanto, Russian and Irish and wrote poetry throughout his life, Charles's political activities included organising a United Irishmen commemoration in 1948 to stress the egalitarian nature of that organisation, and an attempt to broker a truce between the Provos the Officials in 1971. He was a member of Keir Hardie's Independent Labour Party, established in Belfast before partition, although a few of the branches survived until the 1930s. He ended up as editor of an Irish language newspaper. Cal's relationship with his father was warm yet dynamic, with an edge that kept it interesting. They never came close to agreeing a solution to the Troubles: Charles believed that constant effort was bound to bring peace, Cal's memory of what came through the letter box leaves him with a less optimistic outlook and a long career in England has led him to the 'warring tribes' analysis of the situation. "Often," he writes, "I wonder what would have happened to me had I stayed in Northern Ireland. Would I have been able to breathe the prejudicial air without becoming addicted - or choking?" Faber Book of War Poetry (Faber & Faber, #13) Former English Home Secretary Ken Baker tried putting his collection under themes, so it's no surprise that it is all English poetry, with many of the peculiarly English perspectives on the tendency of nations to send armies to kill each other. Victor Hugo's Russia 1812, Luis Camoen's The Lusiads, in honour of Portugal, and Ho Xuan Hong's The General's Plaque (translated from the Vietnamese: "The much- praised general made such a cock of things/That thousands of men were slaughtered. All may view/The temple plaque in his honour. No- one sings the praise of the wives, each left with the work of two") are the exceptions. Yeats's Irish airman foreseeing his death is strangely placed under the heading "Gallantry and Heroism", how "my country is Kilcartan Cross" fits the theme here is unclear. It is also bizarre to include Robert Graves (Ledwidge does not make it - a surprising omission) in a section which lauds war poets for their own gallantry Jack Maggs by Peter Carey (Faber & Faber, #16) Australian Booker Prize winner Carey has spent most of his writing career trying to come to terms with his country's rag-bag colonial past. Now he turns it back on Mother England, setting his novel in grimy 1830s London, and making his lead character a convict who has returned, risking death in the act, to find the gentleman for whom he has acted as benefactor - Great Expectations style (and note the resemblance to Magwitch). This Australian is a gentle, caring type, brought to life on the wrong side of the tracks, accumulating skill and expertise, first in the theft of silver and, secondly, in the manufacture of bricks and craving respectability in his homeland in a way that so many aspects of Australian culture were condemned to over the past two centuries. Carey's historical research is exemplary - only one item, a Christmas tree turning up a little earlier than might have been expected. An Irish serving boy is described as being "better off at home in Ireland praying to the French" displaying a novel of the balladry and culture of O'Connell's Ireland and one of the characters turns to Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent, the Irish bestseller of its time, for solace. A wonderful novel, which projects some of the obsessions of the late 90s novelist (homosexuality makes an incidental appearance and the central role of the therapist in drawing out the plot is used by referring to the fad of mesmerism) and you will recognise a lot of the characters from today's equally obsessive and introverted age - or at least their descendants. Alias Grace by Margaret Attwood (Virago, #7) First the facts: Toronto, a century ago, Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery are found murdered. A stable hand, James McDermott, and a serving maid, Grace Marks, were tried and found guilty. McDermott was hanged, Marks jailed for life. From these, Margaret Attwood has recreated a sad tale of Canada's Irish community, cunningly projecting herself into the mind of the young woman who may or may not have been a murderess. Zero Option by Chris Ryan (Century, #16) Ryan badly needs the three letters IRA to help him sell books, but as his first novel showed a dearth of knowledge about Northern Ireland itself (one of the plotlines involved a plan to blow up the north's gas network) he has to transport them into all sorts of unlikely locations,this time Libya. The SAS hero parachutes in to kill an Iraqi general (Iraq, Libya, Crossmaglen, they're all in the same territory to Ryan), also rescues his kidnapped son and girlfriend and appeases the Provos by convincing them that he has assassinated John Major, gunned down while tending the roses at Chequers. The ceasefire might damage the storylines. On second thoughts, maybe the storylines don't need to relate to reality on any level. ******************************************************** Fr. Des Wilson Four reasons for leaving London behind During the next few months Irish democrats will be putting forward - inside and outside the negotiating room - the solid arguments in favour of detaching ourselves from London's control. It will be made clear that these arguments have nothing to do with what some incompetent commentators refer to as 'romantic nationalism'. They have to do with realities which are economic, political, religious and cultural. Economic: We shall never have adequate economic development suited to the needs and abilities of our people as long as we are controlled from London. The Americans realised this for themselves centuries ago and created a revolution. Their case had no more to do with 'romantic nationalism' than ours has. If London administrations had the willingness or ability to develop our economy they would have done it during the past 75 years. Instead, they reduced the most prosperous part of Ireland, the northeast, to one of the most unproductive areas in the European Union. They will keep on doing it as long they are allowed to. So far, the British unionist minority in Ireland has not issued a single document with any plan for the economic development of this part of Ireland. Instead, it encouraged London while it was bringing us to unproductive ruin and total dependency. There is no evidence that any viable economic plan is in the hands of the British unionist minority even yet. Political: London policy here has been one of dividing and opposing people against each other. Modern European politics demands cohesion and cooperation. Since the beginning of the European Union, London attempted to obstruct and undermine it. In the northeast we have not enjoyed the financial help which EU membership should have given us as a disadvantaged region - and to which we are entitled, whatever our opinions of the EU may be. Our European Parliament members had neither the numbers, the efficiency nor the influence to change matters adequately. Now there is evidence that London policy towards the EU is being changed by the Blair administration. However, we should not have to await changes by London which are neither sure nor necessarily advantageous to us, however they may affect southern England. London was among the very last European governments to do away with one-party government - the Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and German one-party systems were dead or dying after the Second World War. London insisted upon keeping one party government here even when the rest of Europe was abandoning the whole concept of one-party government as undemocratic. It kept it here until 1972 when it was not abolished but merely put on hold. It thus became the only European government to insist upon keeping undemocratic one-party government in territory it occupied. There is no substantial evidence that London would not impose one-party dominated government again if allowed to. We cannot afford to allow it. If separation from London is necessary to prevent it, then separation is necessary. Religious : London has for centuries maintained an anti-Catholic policy. There is no evidence that it is willing or able to make radical change in this. The costs in England would be too high for London to do it quickly. The costs to us would be too high to wait for London to do it slowly. London policy has been to woo the Vatican and persecute the people, to suppress Catholic and even Protestant dissent while allowing anti-Catholic preachers full rein as long as they did not damage London's interests in Ireland or at home. This policy placed Protestants in the intolerable situation of having to dominate their neighbours for little financial, political, religious or cultural return. Jews, Muslims and others had to keep quiet, afraid to come to the help of their fellow citizens, in case the regime should ever find it useful to attack them as well. Cultural: London policy has been to destroy the culture of the nations it oppressed. In Europe, however, people are becoming more and more aware of cultural values. Even with the influx of hundreds of thousands of people from other cultures into England, and to a lesser extent Scotland and Wales, London did not adequately respond. Instead, through newspapers, television and general policy, it insisted upon declaring non-English cultures inferior and destructible. There is no evidence that the Blair administration has any plans for fostering or even adequately protecting cultural values, here or elsewhere. Instead, it has refused to put into effect here its own legislation against abuse of our people for religious or cultural reasons. It is impossible under a London administration to bring a successful court case against those who hurl abuse for religious or cultural reasons. If we were to follow the logic of London's support for its unionist minority we would have to live in ghettos, change the names of Ballymena, Bangor, Shankill, Ballymacarret, Limavady and hundreds of other towns,villages and districts because their names, being Irish, are offensive to London's supporters and would,they say, prevent them from going into those places! During the next few months Irish democrats will find it useful to put great emphasis, certainly upon the corruption of the regime which has abused us for so long and to demand redress and compensation, but also upon the positive reasons why it is no longer thinkable that we can have a healthy economic, political, religious and cultural future unless we cut ourselves off from London government. ***************************************************** continued in Part II ================================================================= 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-10.08.97-22:46:56-10114