Andersonstown News

Kneecap album FENIAN reaches number 1 in Irish charts and number 2 in UK

Keencap’s album Fenian has reached number 1 in the Irish album charts Earlier the band said it was donating all of the royalties from Fenian this week in Wales, England, Scotland and the Occupied 6 to Irish language organisation in West Belfast, Glór na Móna, the Irish language cultural centre on the Falls Road, Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich, and Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Tweeting this afternoon when word broke the FENIAN had reach number one in the Irish charts, Kneecap posted: “Muintir na hÉirean, is grá linn sibh. “We’re buzzing to be number 1 in the Irish charts. A big part of Kneecap has always been bringing the Irish language into the contemporary space, so young people see the language iso f value and on par with any other language. “And with this also comes showing solidarity with those who need it most around the world and at home.” “This past year though, as the British state witch-hunt came for us, we got solidarity from across this island – electric picnic being one of our highlights this year with 50,000 of us in a field. “GRMA to everyone who got the album and we’ll see you this summer to celebrate FENIAN.” Later this afternoon when the UK album chart was announced, the band said: Kneecap's first album release, 2024's Fine Art, went to number 43 in the UK and number two in the Republic of Ireland.

Terry Sharpe lived a life marked by faith, humour, dignity and love, funeral hears

WEST Belfast man Terry Sharpe lived a life marked by faith, humour, dignity and love, mourners were told at his funeral Mass on Friday morning.

AOH chief condemns mural showing band marching past scene of Sean Graham massacre

THE National President of the Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) – who has been in Belfast visiting a number of projects this week – has condemned a new mural in East Belfast which includes an image of a loyalist band marching past the scene of the Sean Graham bookmakers massacred. Five Catholics, including two teenagers, were shot dead by the UDA in the sectarian attack on the Ormeau Road in 1992. The mural, which was unveiled this week, shows a loyalist band marching past the bookmakers in the aftermath of the atrocity, where a banner had been erected by protestors reading ‘No sectarian marches’. Yesterday, Sean Pender met with relatives of the victims of the massacre during a visit to South Belfast. It was only afterwards that learnt of the mural which had been unveiled in the London Road and My Lady’s Road area of East Belfast. Funded by the Housing Executive as part of its ‘re-imaged’ project aimed at replacing paramilitary murals on its property., the housing body has now asked for the mural to be taken down. AOH chief Pender said he was shocked when saw images of the mural.

Sit-in at Housing Executive offices after West Belfast family eviction

HOUSING activists are staging a protest this afternoon at the Housing Executive offices in Belfast city centre over their treatment of a West Belfast family evicted from their home.

ROBIN LIVINGSTONE: Making any plans this summer?

I THINK those who erected the Bobby Sands statue in Belfast should have applied for planning permission. Why they didn’t is anybody’s guess. Perhaps they were concerned about it being knocked back by City Hall, although I can’t see that having happened.

SQUINTER: Is this your souped-up people-botherer, sir?

SQUINTER’S got a lot of sympathy for the PSNI in relation to the Stewartstown Road drag race debacle on Monday evening.

WE SAY: Buckle up for summer – again

THE war of words over the axing of funding for an English-Irish placename project is another depressing example of the determination of unionism to keep scoring petty points that delight their staunchest followers but mean a drearily familiar round of division and anger that exhausts and dispirits the rest of us.

DÚLRA: Save Irish nature? Then save the Irish language

IF you want to save nature in Ireland, save the Irish language.

HEALTHWISE: Do you need Glutamine supplements? Maybe

Glutamine helps support immune cells and is a primary fuel source for our intestinal cells.

GERRY ADAMS: Springhill heroes invoke warm local memories

WHEN I was a wee buck growing up in Ballymurphy there was a river at the back of the houses across from our home place at the corner of Glenalina Road and Divismore Park. The river ran the length of our street and the length of Ballymurphy Road before exiting below the Whiterock Road and into the City Cemetery. From there it meandered down to and under the Falls Road beside the bus depot and onwards to the Bog Meadows. You can see it there to this day. The stretch which used to border our street was long ago captured and incarcerated in a pipe below ground.