We look back at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this week in 1981
Attempted abductions in A’town
THE Andersonstown News office has received reports of three attempts being made to abduct young teenage boys in the Andersonstown area over the past week. In all the attempts a yellow Fiat car with four men in it was used, and in one incident one of the lads involved said the men spoke with “country accents”.
The parents of the young people, all of whom managed to escape, have appealed to other parents in the area to be on their guard at all times especially over the Christmas period. Speculation is rife in the area that the renewed series of attacks is a consequence of the recent formation of the Loyalist Third Force now apparently legal and receiving full co-operation from the ‘security forces’.
‘Child molesters’ normally tavel alone; and the presence of four men in the car would seem to suggest a conspiracy.
EDENMORE INCIDENT
On Tuesday of last week a fifteen-year-old youth going to La Salle Secondary School was followed by a car containing four men who tried to pull him inside in Edenmore Drive. The boy managed to drag himself away and made his way back home. The car made off at speed.
ST MICHAEL’S
On that same evening, a group of lads outside St Michael’s Youth Club, noticed a yellow Fiat car slow down on Finaghy Road North and the men inside spent some time observing people on the road.
Later in the evening the same car returned and according to one report, two men got out and approached a group of teenage boys outside. An attempt was made to drag one lad into the car, but he fought back and escaped, and all the boys ran into the church grounds. Again the car made off.
GLENCOLIN
On Wednesday evening at 6.10pm a yellow Fiat car approached a group of three twelve-year-old lads at the corner of Glencolin Drive and Glencolin Heights on the Upper Glen Road. Two of the four men in the car got out and one of them grabbed one of the twelve-year-olds and said: “Youre coming with us.”
The man spoke with a “country accent”.
The young lad struggled and pulled away, and with his two friends he ran up Glencolin Heights towards his own home. In the meantime the yellow Fiat drove along Glencolin Drive and turned in an attempt to cut off the lads’ escape. When the wouldbe abductors saw the boys enter the house, they made off at speed.
NATIVITY: Pupils from St Patrick’s Girls Primary School performing their Christmas play in December 1981
Editorial
WE have often said that Paisley has to be confronted, and confronted at every opportunity. We welcome, therefore, the withdrawal of his visa to visit the USA.
Paisley is a great admirer of some of the right wing fundamentalist Protestant groups in America and he has visited the country on many occasions. He owes much to the Bob Jones University from which he received his Doctorate, which has conferred on him the stamp of the intellectual and given him an academic standing which he most certainly would have failed to achieve at any other university other than at this fundamentalist bible college.
It was here that he also learned the communication and mob oratory techniques much used by fundamental Christians in America. Not only did he imitate to perfection his American teachers, but he passed what he had learned onto his diciples, so that they all speak with the same deliberate tone of voice and use the same turn of phrase, and even make the same feeble attempts at humour.
The mark of Paisely is well and truly stamped on the Rev William Beattie, his ertswhile deputy, and Peter Robinson, his current understudy. Paisley, therefore owes a lot to his early training in America, and it must come as a severe blow to his morale and an important dent in his armour to be barred from the USA.
Paisley’s type of bigoted right wing anti-Cahtolicism predominated in the Southern states of America, and it was important that he be deprived entry, not so much that he would have gained converts to his cause, but rather that he would have stoked up his fires of hate by feeding off fundamental Christians every bit as bigoted and right wing as himself.
We have enough bigotry of our own country without having it replenished from the USA.
Paddy Sullivan, Barbara McCann, Jim Doyle and Mary, Eileen McGarry, Kate Larkin and Paddy Scullion at the Christmas Dinner Dance in Ligoniel Working Men’s Club
No GAA action on Belfast playing fields
AT the South Antrim Convention on Sunday last in Rossa House, the delegates decided to postpone stronger militant action for extra playing fields in North and West Belfast, until further negotiations in the New Year.
County chairman Hugh McPoland asked the delegates to refrain from the postponed action until he reports back in the New Year.
Strong condemnation of local councillors was voiced by several delegates and the general apathy of those represenatives to playing fields for Gaelic games was clearly marked for further reference.
Lisburn Council also came in for criticism when it was disclosed that they had made no plans for Gaelic games in their new complex at Twinbrook. However, it was disclosed that a large number of soccer teams were to be facilitated and one wonders if the Twinbrookers shouldn’t change some of their street names to Beattie Avenue and Paisley Park.
The following officers were returned: Con Grego, chairman; Pat O’Neill, secretary; Frank Quinn, treasurer; and Joe McGuigan, registrar. Two new committee men were elected in Paul Montgomery, Mitchels; and Charlie Martin, McDermotts.
Paddy Muckian with the bar staff and helpers at the Sports Bar OAP Christmas function
