We look at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this week in 1985...
Doubt cast on million Protestants theory
USING the Fair Employment Agency as a front, the British ministers in Stormont have commissioned a study under the direction of Professor David Eversiey of Cambridge and Dr Valerie Herr of Berkley. The Study attempts to remedy the deficiencies of the 1981 Census and tries to answer the key question – How many Catholics are there?
How many Protestants? The study concludes that there are somewhere between 39.1 per cent and over 41 per cent Catholics in the 1981 population.
The overall conclusion is that in 1981 there were 610,900 Catholics and 951,300 "Others". The "Others" category includes both atheists and those belonging to non-Catholic religions. Clearly, therefore, the Protestant population falls far short of Cardinal Conway's "million Protestants '' – an unsophisticated estimate which proved useful to Unionist politicians and pro-British apologists.
Of greater interest than the overall totals are the differences between districts and the general picture with regard to the age profiles of the two populations. Of the twenty six districts, eleven have an overall Catholic majority, eight have an adult majority of Catholics and twelve districts have a majority of Catholic school children.
While the overall percentage of Catholics is from 39.1 to 41 per cent, the percentage in the under fifteen age group is 46.5 per cent. This implies that there will be an acceleration of the proportion of Catholics in the population as the younger age groups reach marriageable age. This rapid growth will be aided by the fact that the average Catholic married woman has 2.57 children, while her Protestant counterpart has 1.6 children.
Many government and political organisations are keenly interested in population trends in the Six County area. The principal focus of their attention is how many Catholics are there? The size of the Catholic population, and its rate of growth, are considered to be a good guide to future voting patterns and therefore to the projected life-span of the Six County British Colony.
Two unanswered questions are suggested by this study.
Firstly, how long will it be before Catholics are in the majority in the Six Counties?
Secondly, how long will it be before Catholics comprise a majority of those entitled to vote? Answering these questions could be of great interest to many individuals and organisations. Some of the raw material for statistical research into these questions has now been collected in this study.
TOGETHER: The Brennan family reunion at the Greenan Lodge Hotel back in 1985. Charles and Anne from Beechmount were in the front row.
Editorial
THE battle going on in the media at the moment about the banning of the Martin McGuinness programme should not be mistaken for a battle against censorship, but rather a battle on who applies the censorship.
The person who would believe that programmes about the British presence in the Six Counties have not been censored in the past would be naive indeed, and anyone who believes that the present controversy and strike will prevent censorship in the future would be very much mistaken.
After 15 years of high media coverage, there is hardly a dog in the street who couldn't tell you a story about a programme edited out of all similarity to the truth to suit the prevailing mood in the broadcasting establishments.
What is different this time is not that the programme has been censored, but the fact that the Thatcher Government had the audacity to do it in public. So what we are witnessing at the moment is not a blow for freedom of expression by the media, but a face-saving exercise for the technocrats of the B.B.C.
Both B.B.C. and I.T.V. have made thousands of programmes over the past fifteen years, and have succeeded in avoiding the crucial question of Britain's immoral occupation of part of our country. This must be the ultimate in censorship which would be the envy of any authoritarian regime in the world. Perfidious Albion still rules supreme, and just as ‘The Mother of Parliaments' and the 'Cradle of Democracy' has raped and plundered half way through the world in the name of decency, democracy and Christian enlightenment, then also has the B.B.C. distorted the truth and avoided the facts in the name of the freedom of speech and the right of self-expression.
Three weeks of fun at Newhill Youth Club
DURING the past three weeks a summer playscheme at Newhill Youth Club has provided a variety of activities for the children of the New Barnsley and Dermott Hill estates.
The scheme was organised by the Youth Club and the Irish Section of Pax Christi – a
Catholic peace organisation. Pax Christi International provided a dozen volunteers from America, Holland, Ireland and England who have run the scheme together with youth club leaders.
The daily activities have included games, arts and crafts, and swimming as well as camping, day and evening trips, clown and puppet shows and a fancy dress parade. These have provided entertainment for 150 children aged from 4 to 16 years. A mural on the club wall and evening discos have gone down especially well with the teenagers.
