We look at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this week in 1985...
Lack of playing fields in Twinbrook
ONCE more Lisburn Borough Council has refused to develop playing fields at Twinbrook Estate on the outskirts of West Belfast. This was revealed in a letter from the Council to the local Twinbrook Tenants and Community Association in response to their request for Council help.
Since the mid-1970's a 21 acre green field site in Twinbrook has been designated by the D.O.E. for playing fields and other recreational activities, and for several years community groups in the Twinbrook area have campaigned to get these recreational facilities provided. However, Lisburn Borough Council whose responsibility it is to provide recreational facilities, have consistently refused to take over the site from the Housing Executive and develop it on the grounds of cost.
The T.T.C.A., after several years of campaigning and out of frustration at the Council's lack of action entered negotiations with the NIHE themselves in 1983. As a result, an agreement was reached between the H.E. and the local community in the Autumn of 1984 which enabled the Twinbrook people to use the 21 acre site and develop their own facilities. To date, with the help of the local soccer teams and Davitt's G.A.C. the Twinbrook community now has a soccer and a GAA pitch, and it is hoped that the area will be further developed in the coming months.
However, in a statement issued this week, the TTCA say that they are disgusted that no help in this work, nor any encouragement, has been received from Lisburn Council.
"The Twinbrook community has an unemployment rate of 70 per cent," says the statement, "and we thus have very limited resources of our own; yet the Council does not seem to regard us as their responsibility. A prime example of this lack of concern is the building by the Council using generous Department of Education grants of a community activity centre in 1981 (again, after years of community campaigning).
“Yet the prices in this centre are so high that few local people can afford to use it and no concessions are given to local community groups like pre-school play groups etc., who are trying to provide for the needs of people in the area. The local advice centre is a case in point: It has obtained thousands of pounds in unclaimed welfare benefits, for residents through its ongoing benefits take-up campaign, yet is charged the full rent for the use of a changing room in the centre and given no concessions by the Council."
The T.T.C.A. feels that Lisburn Council is more interested in cutting rates than providing for the needs of the people in its area.
Boost for Short Strand
TWO new workers have been employed by the St Matthew's Tenants’ Association to increase the facilities available from the local Mac Airt Community Centre.
Newly appointed Development Officer for the TA, Martina Dines, says she would like to see more people making use of the local advice centre.
“Anyone who is seeking help with supplementary benefit, housing, sickness benefit, bills or other problems should contact the Centre on any week day,” said Martina.
“We would also like to see increased use of the community centre itself and the development of a wide range of activities which would cater for all sections of the community.
“There is already a weekly disco in the Centre and this will continue, Naiscoil Mhic Airt, the Short Strand Irish Nursery, also operates from the Centre and Irish classes are available.
“A Catering Supervisor has also been appointed by the St Matthew's Tenants' Association. Marie Clarkin will take responsibility for the Centre canteen, which will now open from 9.30 a.m until 3 p.m. Monday to Friday.” Subsidised lunches for pensioners are available and anyone at all who wishes to drop in, is welcome. Marie hopes to widen the scope of the canteen to cater for private parties, wedding, receptions and buffet evenings.
Editorial
BISHOP Cahal Daly's comments this week on social conditions in the Divis Flats area of West Belfast are most appropriate in this Holy Week, and are to be welcomed. Despite the fact that the Catholic Church has sent thousands of Missionaries overseas to minister to the spiritual needs of people in underprivileged countries, they have found that the physical needs of the people there often take precedence over their spiritual needs, and in fact to preach the Gospel without any attempt to alleviate poverty is often found to be contradictory. Yet in Ireland the Church is often seen to be complacent in its attitude to poverty and exploitation, where "God's Will Be Done" and "Suffer Little Children to Come Unto Me" would seem to be the guiding light of its very existence.
Poverty, exploitation and deprivation are an affront to the dignity of the human person and as such, are direct attacks on the teaching of Jesus Christ, whom we suspect, if he were on earth today would be an adherent to "the Liberation Theology" causing so much concern in institutional Church circles today. The Diocese of Down and Connor with its almost 300,000 Catholics is an awesome responsibility for any man, and when that Diocese contains some of the most deprived areas of Western Europe then the sheer magnitude of the problems demand radical solutions.
It is no longer sufficient to pinpoint the problems and make eloquent philosophical statements on their effects on society. Is it not time we had an auxiliary Bishop with special responsibility for the unemployed? Do we need a special unit in the Diocese headed by a senior church man to look at Job Creation? Do we need a "4th College" funded by the considerable resources of the Catholic Church and geared towards Job Study and away from academic stuffiness? What about housing? The Catholic Church has the resources at home and abroad to solve that problem in a short period of time, if it could only throw off its self-imposed restrictions about getting directly involved in social issues.
The Catholic Church in Ireland, and especially in the Six Counties, enjoys an enormous amount of goodwill from its own members, whether practising or not. But we believe that this good will is not being used to its full extent to alleviate the many problems we face today. Maybe as a first step towards the new radicalism that is needed, that the Catholic Church should investigate the role played by the church in the Basque regions of Spain, where the clergy became directly involved with the people to help alleviate their massive social problems. If this type of radicalism is not forthcoming, then we feel that the Church will become less and less relevant as years go by.
