We look at the stories that were making the headlines this week in 1982
Patrick Kearney presents a new TV to Mrs Louise Sands and daughter Kerri-Anne, Christmas 1982
Confusion over St Joe’s and St Mary’s
THE Catholic Church's control of teacher training for secondary schools will be severely curtailed when the present proposal for the amalgamation of St. Joseph's and St. Mary's Training Colleges is completed.
The Andersonstown News has learned this week, that the amalgamated colleges will cater exclusively for primary teachers, forcing prospective secondary school teachers to take courses in one of the universities or the polytechnic.
At present, graduate teachers from the two Catholic colleges are employed widely throughout the whole education system at both primary and secondary level. If this little publicised proposal is implemented, then the government will have achieved to a considerable degree, its original aim of wresting control of Catholic education from the hands of the Catholic Church.
The amalgamation of the two colleges also raises the question of what will be done with St. Joseph's College, assuming it is the one to close. There is a growing body of opinion among parents and educationalists alike that it should be developed as a centre for further education in the West Belfast area.
Margaret Garland presents the ‘Well Kept Building’ award to Roseanna and Philip McPeake at their Falls Road shop in December 1982
Soldiers go unpunished
In a court case last week two British soldiers who had assaulted a female hospital worker in the grounds of the RVH had charges against them dismissed.
The judge also ordered the victim to cover her solicitor's costs for the case, which went unreported in all the media. And, following the court decision, the woman's husband told the Andersonstown News that he was “thoroughly disgusted”.
“It's the fact that British soldiers can grab and throw people around in the grounds of the RVH and get away with it that's getting me. My wife works hard at the RVH and no-one has the right to throw her around like a piece of dirt."
The South Belfast woman sustained grievous injuries to her right leg when attacked in April 1981, with skin torn from the thigh to the knee.
The middle-aged woman recounted the incident.
“A friend lent me her car keys to go and get some tiles out of her car and put in mine. As I was trying to open the door two soldiers came along and asked, ‘Is this your car?’ I said ‘No' and began to explain but one took the keys of me and the other flung me against a wall. They then opened the car, trailed the tiles out and walked away."
Una Dempsey, Owenvarragh, wins at Lisburn Dog Show with Bedlington Terriers Sim and Zowie
Editorial: RUC death squads
IT is ironic that it took the killing of two members of the military wing of a revolutionary organisation to highlight the existence of an execution squad in the R.U.C. We live in a society where execution squads are an acknowledged fact of life, and in our ongoing war situation, we are no different to other countries throughout the world in this respect.
It has been the experience of countries where there is severe political unrest caused by genuine political or social grievances, that the armed forces of the established authority become more vicious in their behaviour as their efforts to impose their will on a disaffected population are frustrated by continual armed resistance. Hence the horrific situation in El Salvador and Guatemala.
The Six Counties is no different. To the Protestant working class "security" has become the be-all and end-all of their existence. The facts speak for themselves.
1. There are more than 35,000 people involved in security work in the Six Counties. Approximately one-in-ten of the Loyalist community live off the security machine;
2. Ninety-six per cent of the RUC is Protestant, with the newest recruit earning more than £250 a week. This is the highest rate of security concentration in any country in the world;
3. Contrary to common belief, the so-called security forces were responsible over the past couple of years for the deaths of more young children than the so-called " terrorists". Therefore, the situation here is following the classic pattern of most colonial or neo-colonial disputes throughout the world.
The security monster will grow and grow until it consumes even those who created it. In these circumstances, the RUC execution squads come as no surprise to us, but to imply, as some people do, that this has something to do with law and order or common justice, is to frustrate both law and justice and ridicule us in the eyes of the world as a people bereft of all reason and understanding.
England is caught in a colonial dilemma of her own making and which only she can solve by withdrawing completely from our country. Unfortunate as it is for us, intelligence, compassion and understanding are not the most developed of the many attributes in the English character.
Young Francie McPeake and class play traditional Irish music as Radio Ulster’s Walter Love broadcasts ‘Day by Day’ from Andersonstown Leisure Centre
