We look back at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this week in 1980
Development Trust formed
THE small group of Belfast community workers who have formed the West Belfast Development Trust have set themselves a daunting task.
Frustrated by the massive unemployment and social deprivation in the overwhelming nationalist area, they are going to take direct action to “raise capital, redirect the area’s money supply, develop skills, and bring resources and investment into the area”. Surely an unenviable task.
With male unemployment at over 20 per cent, they feel that there is a definite government policy to deprive the West Belfast area of any financial or social assistance, and they are determined to use local talent to tackle the problem. They are calling for assistance from the general public in their first major fundraising effort at the Mayfair Festival in the Green Briar in May.
Our industrial correspondent writes: This group of concerned individuals is to be congratulated for having the courage to get to grips with this massive problem. Not only will they have to contend with the ordinary economic difficulties of providing even one job, but they will have to combat the awful sense of apathy prevalent in the local community. Community instigated projects in the West Belfast area have had very little success to date, and not for lack of enthusiasm from the instigators.
Some people would feel that the present committee suffer to some extent from its proliferation of community workers. Community workers were a phenomenon of the seventies and have become an essential part of our way of life, but are generally looked upon as being on the ‘unproductive’ side of society, usually financed by government or local authorities and very seldom asked to be financially self-sufficient.
Some informed people feel that unemployment can only be tackled on a local level by giving more people the opportunity to become self-employed. The example usually given for local initiative has been the Falls Taxi Association, and that is exactly what happened in that case. 400 men were given the opportunity to become self-employed and they took it.
This is the only real successful community instigated project that can be cited in the West Belfast area.
Unless the present committee can augment its members to include a lot more self-employed people with ideas for actual job creation (in the service industry for example, where West Belfast people are under-represented), the other laudable ideas of ‘People’s Banks’ etc will not get off the ground.
Danny Fulton, captain of the La Salle teachers five-a-side team, accepts the award for winning the Beechmount Leisure Centre lunch-time league from Cllr Liam Hunter. Also present is Leisure Centre manager John McGinley and the rest of the La Salle players
Editorial
Talk’s cheap. And the speech made by Charlie Haughey last weekend will have no meaning unless the Taoiseach is seen to be doing something about it – ag cur lena fhocal.
However, it is very important that the leader of the 26 County sovereign state should declare, clearly and firmly, that the whole ‘Northern Ireland idea is not on; that it failed from the beginning and that it won’t do in the future. It lets the loyalists know where they stand. It lets them know what to expect in time to come, and that it is in their best interests to come to terms with it.
A declaration of British intent to withdraw would, of course, make them come to terms with it, but Mr Haughey was silent on that issue.
He must realise that there can be no compromise on this matter. Until now Irish Nationalists have always compromised because of the strength of Unionism. But Unionism isn’t all that strong in the face of the majority of the Irish people determined to have what is right. And Irish Nationalists, particularly in the North, after ten years of bloody war, have shown that they can’t be beaten. Mr Haughey please note!
Questions: If Fianna Fáil is so heavily in favour of a United Ireland, why doesn’t it have election and party machinery in the Six Counties, and give us all a chance to vote in an All-Ireland context? Why where the flags of 26 Irish counties only, displayed at the Ard Fheis?
Sean Hagan and Frank Cahill at the Sean Misteil CLG annual dinner at the Greenan Lodge
News in brief
A NEW recreational centre is to be built on ground above Holy Trinity School in Turf Lodge. An outline plan for the centre has been lodged by Fr Donnelly to the planning officer of the DoE and work is expected to start later this year.
Planning permission has also been applied for a supermarket and shops to be built on the Falls Road between Maguire’s Garage and Milltown Cemetery. This is to be an extension of the shops which are there at the moment. One problem which could arise for this project is the amount of car-parking space available
A middle-aged woman going shopping yesterday was attacked by two brown dogs at the playing fields at South Link. The woman was bitten by one of the dogs and was badly shocked. People in the area have complained about lack of control of dogs by their owners, and they are roaming about the area in packs.
The Andersonstown News in its 26th January edition reported the theft of articles including slides from Our Ladies Hospice, Beechmount. The nuns at that time, pleaded for the return of the slides, particularly as they included pictures of nuns and priests who had been associated with the Hospice over many years. We are now pleased to report that the slides have been returned and the nuns are overjoyed.
A Stewartstown Road man whose stolen car was crashed into a lamp standard in Stewartstown Avenue last December, has appealed to a man who witnessed the crash to contact him and make a statement to a solicitor that three people were involved. The car, a Ford Escort, was stolen from outside the man’s home at about 10.30 on December 7 and was later found crashed. He spoke to a person who witnessed the crash but, unfortunately, he didn’t get his name or address, though he thinks he was from Lenadoon. The man indicated then that he would be prepared to make a statement.
Two weeks ago a Marina parked at the Clubhouse was vandalised. The break-lights were broken and the wipers stolen. It cost the owner £14. Last week, at the same spot, the boot was broken into and the man’s work tools stolen. These cost £100.
On Tuesday of this week, the vandals struck again. They couldn’t remove the new wipers, so they broke them. Repairs cost £7.
“I’d like to bring it to the attention of those responsible,” the car owner's wife told our reporter, “that when they’re caught, as they will be, they’ll be made to pay for all the damage in full.”
Tom and Ann Graham with Pat and Margaret Stephens at the Sean Misteil CLG annual dinner at the Greenan Lodge
