WE look back at the stories that were making the headlines this week in the Andersonstown News in 1982
Breandan Mac Carráin, Gearóid and Tony McAuley (BBC) examine a boat in Andersonstown Leisure Centre at West Belfast Living Culture Festival
Family of innocent Irish prisoner victimised
ANN Marie Maguire, the young daughter of Mrs Annie Maguire, the London-Irish housewife convicted in 1975 on trumped up bombing charges, is being singled out and victimised by the British Home Office. The teenage girl is being denied the normal travel benefits available to any one visiting a close relative in prison.
Usually, any prisoner’s close relative who has no means of income, is entitled to be reimbursed for the cost of travelling to and from prison visits. However, a recent request by 15-year old Ann Marie Maguire for this allowance which would have enabled her to visit her mother in Durham Jail and her father in Wakefield Prison, was turned down. Ann Marie came up against similar difficulties here in Belfast where she lived for three years after her parents’ imprisonment.
A close relative says: “The Social Security people treated her as if she didn’t exist. Ann Marie didn’t receive an allowance for her upkeep or for visits. The petty harassment is an attempt by the authorities to undermine her mother’s strong spirit.”
The relative added: “Since her imprisonment in 1974 Annie Maguire has continually embarrassed the British Government by maintaining and publicising her innocence. 46-year-old Annie Maguire was visited by Owen Carron MP last month. She told him then that she alone among the Irish prisoners, was still being held as a maximum security Category A prisoner. The governor has informed her that this is a punishment for “showing no remorse for her crimes”.
As a Category A inmate Mrs Maguire has her letters parcels and privileges restricted. She is held in the high security wing of Durham Jail and three warders sit in at all her visits. Annie is separated from the visitor by a table and all letters and photographs the visitor has must be shown to the warders before Annie is allowed to see them.
The organising committee of the Republican Welfare Function in the Iveagh Community Centre
Editorial
THE tragic death of local man Thomas Matthews, killed near his home on Tuesday night by a runaway joyrider in a solen car, highlights once more this growing problem in our society.
Although by no means confined to our own community, the problem has nevertheless gained a notoriety here because of the number of deaths caused by this anti-social practice.
In a society brutalised by 12 years of open warfare, the thought that young people, for the want of something better to do or for kicks, should cause the death of a father of three children, should strike fear into all our hears and push us to do something about it.
The punitive measures taken by the RUC and British Army in combating joyriding have, in our view, exacerbated the problem rather than diminish it. The shooting of joyriders has added to the thrill of stealing a car and running the gauntlet and does not deter the young people in any way.
Nevertheless, they cannot be allowed to maim and kill innocent people at will, and must be stopped.
Without doubt, the most effective way of preventing a car being stolen is to immobilise it, and there are a number of cheap devices on the market that can do this quite easily.
In fact it is amazing, that given the incidence of car theft in society, that new cars still don’t have anti-theft devices fitted as standard.
The long term and more difficult problem to solve, is the problem of the bored and idle young people in our midst, who are possibly the most pathetic side of the whole tragic scenario.
Last, but not least, parents must be made aware of their responsibility to their own children, and especially the younger ones of 15 or 16 years of age. It is imperative that they make every effort to find out where they are, and who they are with after dark. A return to the good old days of stricter family control and firmer discipline, coupled with a keen sense of “speak when you’re spoken to” as far as children as concerned, would go some way to alleviating the problem.
Patricia McCartney, Annie and Gerry Doran, Maria and Liam Murphy and Lily Daly at West Belfast Social Club Darts Section function in the clubrooms
Short Strand raids 'hostile and nasty'
On Tuesday last (19th April) a large combined force of RUC and UDR personnel launched a widescale but fruitless raid on the lower end of Short Strand. Five streets were cordoned off for most of the morning, while the raid was carried out.
The behaviour of the search parties has been severely criticised by the people of Short Strand. According to one local man they acted in a “hostile and nasty manner” towards residents of the area.
“People who objected to being searched every time they left their homes were thrown up against wall, forcibly frisked and abused.”
The raid began at 8am and children who were making their way to the district’s primary school were forced to go through the search procedure as they passed the RUC cordon. A local nun schoolteacher who saw what was happening, intervened and managed to escort the children unimpeded past the cordon.
An attempt was also made to search the car of one of the priests of St Matthew’s parish. The priest objected, however, and was eventually allowed to on his way.
In February, the Andersonstown News reported on a similar raid which although causing great inconvenience to locals, also failed to net anything. On that occasion UDR soldiers were seen painting obscene graffiti on gable walls in the area.
Sisters Pauline McCrudden and Kathleen McLaughlin at the Republican Welfare Function in the Iveagh Community Centre
