WE look back at the stories that were making the headlines this week in the Andersonstown News in 1982
At the new Beechmount housing estate, residents took part in a big clean-up
British Army plan new Belfast
SCOPE Magazine, in its current edition, backs up many of the claims made in the recent Andersonstown News story on town planning in Belfast. The Andersonstown News story pointed the finger at the Belfast Development Office and accused its officers of shameful collaboration with the British military in planning housing estates to suit military needs rather than the needs of the people.
The Scope story quotes from a letter which was sent from the head of the Belfast Development Office to the Belfast Regional Controller of the Housing Executive. The quotation goes as follows: “We have in recent months sought to remind everyone concerned in DoE and the NIHE of the need to involve the security forces at an early stage in proposed new works involving new buildings, road alignments etc. We have, however, subsequently had several instances where it emerged that plans were afoot – and virtually at a starting date, where the proposals were unacceptable to the security forces and we have had to make last minute and potentially costly changes.”
It is now clearly evident that the British military machine has the final say in matters affecting roads and houses in Belfast. A special Security Committee on Housing sits at Stormont to consider housing development proposals throughout the city. This committee includes civil servants from the Belfast Development Office together with British military representatives. In the deliberations of the committee the soldiers have the final say. They are not there to be consulted. They are there to tell the civil servants what they will permit and what they will not permit.
Many of the decisions taken by these British officers have resulted in housing development being banned on certain sites. In some cases it boils down to this – less houses for the people and a better field of fire for the British army. As the facts come to light, however, reaction is building up. It is known that some Belfast City Councillors have been pressed by their homeless constituents to protest at the military planning policies of the Stormont supremo and his henchmen. It is known that some councillors have been actively interested in the issue and have protested vigorously against he undercover procedures.
Michael Davitt's GAC reunion in clubrooms
Editorial: Hypocrisy of the British knows no bounds
IF the English have a national characteristic it must surely be intransigence to the point of stupidity, with Maggie Thatcher being the custodian par excellence of the national characteristic.
She has sent her Royal fleet into the winter storms of the South Atlantic to reinforce in blood and tears, if necessary, her claim on a few barren isles 8,000 miles from her homeland. If this is not imperialism at its most obscure, we wonder what is. It comes as no surprise to us that the English ruling classes have difficulty in seeing the stupidity of it all, because some people maintain that there is a congenital defect in their make-up that makes it impossible for them to even comprehend another’s point of view. But what is surprising is the lack of dissent among the general population to the insane acts of their leaders.
We in this country experienced exactly the same intransigence and lack of dissent during last year’s hunger strike in Long Kesh. Church and state united in their condemnation of a peaceful and heroic protest for humane conditions in prison, yet this year they are united in their approval for the killing and mayhem that may come as a result of the battle in the South Atlantic.
The biggest culprits of course in the whole business are those self-important and ego inflated members of the journalist profession, who are backing the ruling classes in all their present action. Just as they backed them on the hunger strike issue last year.
This uncritical attitude of the journalistic profession, which is unique in the Western world, has added to the confidence of unscrupulous British leaders, that they can do what they want with impunity. Journalism in Britain, without a doubt, has become – to coin a phrase – a profession of bellowing slaves and genteel dastards.
Michael Davitt's GAC reunion in clubrooms in 1982
Protests to have flats demolished
A LARGE group of tenants from the Moyard estate blocked the upper Springfield/Whiterock junction on Thursday 22 April in protest against Housing Executive plans in the area. The Moyard Housing Action Committee who organised the demonstration are demanding that all flats in the area be demolished. As reported in this paper over the last few months almost all homes in Moyard are in a deplorable state.
The Executive proposed to knock down only three blocks of flats, Block 102, Block 13 and all the blocks in Moyard Park. A spokesperson for the Action Committee said that the protest had been held to show that the local people “want the whole lot to come down”. Before the 15 minutes roadblock, a meeting attended by over 100 people was held in the Matt Talbot Oratory.
Manager Gonne Roe outside the Green Cross bookshop on the Falls Road
