We look at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this week in 1985...
Leave the country in 48 hours – or else: IRA
IN an unprecedented move, the Belfast Brigade of the IRA has ordered ten men from Belfast to leave the country within 48-hours, or suffer the consequences.
The ten men, eight from Andersonstown, one from the Lower Falls and one from the New Lodge area, are named publicly in this week's issue of the Republican News, and accused of being behind most of the organised crime in the Greater Andersonstown area. Two businesses are also named and accused of handling stolen goods. One has already been closed down and a licensed premises in the centre of the city has been told to close or be closed, and patrons warned to stay away from it for their own safety.
A long statement from the Belfast Brigade of the I.R.A., and published today, states:"Belfast Brigade, I.R.A, has In recent days, and following months of intensive Intelligence work, succeeded in breaking up one of the most active of the criminal gangs presently operating in Nationalist areas. The IRA has now positively identified over a dozen people actively involved in criminal actions including armed robbery, muggings, hijacking, break-ins and dealing in stolen goods.
“Instructions have been issued to units in Belfast for action to be taken against specific individuals and against two particular businesses. As a result of our information, which conclusively proves that the management of a city centre bar has recently bought a huge amount of stolen drink, we are as now ordering the closure of this bar. Failure to comply with this order will mean that at our convenience we will close the premises.
“Below are listed some of the criminal actions undertaken by this gang in the last three months:
1 . Casement Park Social Club, West Belfast. This dub was broken into on two occasions with over £3,000 stolen.
2. McCormick's Shop, Andersonstown Road. This shop was similarly broken into on two occasions. Over 11,000 of cigarettes were taken.
3. Hairdressers above Sinclair's Post Office. This was robbed using an imitation .45 handgun, £20 was taken.
4. Roddy McCorley Club, Glen Road. This club was broken into on two occasions and over £1,000 was stolen as well as considerable damage done to the dub premises.
5. Two houses in St Agnes' Drive were robbed. On one of the two occasions, the criminals involved entered the house by giving the impression they were IRA Volunteers and showed the family a weapon. Money and personal items were taken.
Editorial
THE Anti-Strip Search Committee is doing sterling work in highlighting what is going on in Armagh Jail and it is unfortunate, therefore that the very name of the Committee itself doesn't convey the full horror of what is taking place.
We think that "The Committee Against Enforced Nakedness" would be more appropriate and would convey to the world the ugliness of the whole procedure in Armagh. Many may think that this is a small point. But in a society where the message is all important, a small change in emphasis can have a great significance.
What is taking place in Armagh is a violation of human dignity, deliberately designed to humiliate and denigrate a whole section of the most vulnerable members of society, and those who perpetrate it, whether in government or as paid minions in charge of the prisons here, are criminals of the deepest die, and should be treated as such
The enforced nakedness of women prisoners in Armagh can be equated without any exaggeration with the worst excesses of the Nazi concentration camps in World War Two. To enforce public nakedness on women brought up in a society which respects the intimacy of the female body to a remarkable degree, even in this day and age, is diabolical and will have to be stopped.
In our opinion there is nothing which highlights the intrinsic evil of British rule in Ireland more than the enforced nakedness of women prisoners in Armagh. It is even worse than the blanket protest which had the same psychological affect and which eventually led to ten young men dying on hunger strike. Before something similar happens in Armagh, it is imperative that all right-thinking people throw their weight behind the anti-enforced nakedness campaign, in order to bring this abominable practice to an end.
LOOKING GOOD: Taking part in a fashion show at the Andersonstown Leisure Centre
Walk-out during Dublin meeting
ANTI-STRIP search campaigners walked out in anger from a meeting in Dublin with the Irish Commission for Justice and Peace on Monday, 19th August. Virtually unheard of in the Six Counties, the Commission has been in existence for 15 years and has within its brief issues of injustice in the North.
The meeting on Monday followed the refusal of the Episcopal Conference to meet the Community for Justice group earlier this year. The group was met by four members of the Commission including its President, Bishop Dermot Mahoney. After introductory statements from both sides the campaigners, among whose number were three priests and 14 other Catholics from the North, outlined certain requests which could form the basis for further discussion. Foremost, amongst their requests was that the Commission should issue an immediate and unambiguous condemnation of the practice of strip-searching in Armagh jail.
The response of Bishop Mahoney was that they would 'contemplate’ this issue of such a statement, but could not undertake to issue one before consulting the 'full commission'. Subsequent discussion to elucidate the basis of the reticence of the Commission to such a statement revealed what many of the group felt was a surprising lack of information on the Commission’s part about the topic.
One of the Commission members asked what the group would say if strip-searches were stopped, but closed visits introduced – a question which is based on the erroneous belief that strip-searches are carried out before visits. They are in fact carried out before and after remand hearings.
After one hour when a lay member of the Commission shouted at one of the anti-strip-search campaigners, “just you shut up”, the Community for Justice delegation gathered their papers and left the meeting. No arrangements to have a further discussion were made. A subsequent statement by the Commission for Justice and Peace stated that they were opposed to strip -earching.
