WE look at the stories that were making the headlines this week in the Andersonstown News in 1982
The McFall clan at the St John's Gaelic Athletic Club event
Stepping up of harassment on Nationalist districts
MR Boyd of Twinbrook is pictured holding a part of his front door which was kicked in by British soldiers last week. The soldiers claimed to have been in pursuit of stone-throwers, but locals dispute this allegation.
Last year the same house was stormed by an army undercover unit and the family handcuffed. The raid, which had all the hallmarks of an SAS assassination attempt, had to be aborted when neighbours rushed to the Boyd home.
Harassment of residents in Short Strand and the Markets has been ongoing over the last few weeks.
On Friday night, 19th February, Paula and Bernie Rooney, the sisters of two H-Block prisoners, were on their way home when the back doors of a passing RUC jeep were flung open and a number of shots fired at them. In their panic the girls did not realise that the shots fired were blanks. The RUC men drove off laughing.
It is also reported from Short Strand that summonses for taking part in local H-Block marches, as far back as July last, are still being issued. Recently similar charges against almost 50 residents of Short Strand were thrown out of court.
In the Markets, British soldiers have caused damage to the porches of several houses during searches. The soldiers are not supplying ‘damage forms’ to householders because the porches were not wrecked during full scale house raids. Locals are experiencing difficulty in getting the Housing Executive to repair the porches because they can’t produce a damages form. The Housing Executive will only attend to the damage if it is put down to vandalism.
The Pickerings with Mr and Mrs Joe Clarke and friends at the St John's Gaelic Athletic Club event
Political prisoners in jails
BEFORE recent swoops there were about 40 republicans on remand in the Crumlin Road Jail, with about another 60 awaiting trial in the H-Blocks.
After loyalist inmates destroyed A Wing of the Crum last December, in protest against conditions there, all the inmates of that wing were moved to the H-Blocks. The authorities also seized the opportunity at that time to shift a number of ‘high security’ republican prisoners from wings unaffected by the loyalist protest, to the H-Blocks.
Conditions in the H-Blocks in respect to meals, heat, association etc are, for remand prisoners, superior to the Crumlin Road. Moreover, the republicans have successfully segregated themselves from loyalist and non-political detainees. However, it is reported that in one of the H-Blocks occupied by remand prisoners a number of men are being ill-treated by wardens.
Remand prisoners receive three visits per week.
There are over 130 republicans in the Long Kesh cages (including four INLA volunteers). After 1st March 1976 anyone convicted of a political offense was imprisoned in the H-Blocks. Up until last year those convicted on charges arising out of incidences occurring before March 1976 were allowed to serve their sentences in the Cages.
The republicans in the Cages have what amounts to ‘political status’, being allowed to wear their own clothes, carry out work of their own choosing, and only having contact with wardens through their spokesmen.
A Cage consists of a wired off area with which there are about three to five Nissen huts. The PoWs in the Cages are, on the whole, serving life of lengthy sentences.
Mr Austin and pupils discuss the Falls Community Council local history display in Beechmount
Editorial
IN years gone by, the Lenten season heralded a new spiritual awareness among people of all walks of life.
Older people will recall what can only be termed the more negative attitudes adopted by many people in their quest for spiritual enhancement during the Holy Season.
All sorts of penital hardship were undertaken, ranging from abstinence of tobacco and alcohol to giving up sweets or sugar in tea.
That these minor hardships helped to make people more aware of spiritual values in life we can have no doubt, and helped us to realise the futility and emptiness of material possessions.
Nevertheless, we think that the gradual shift from the more negative aspects of penitence to the more constructive and helpful side, has to be welcomed.
In this day and age it is not so much a question of sacrificing for ones own spiritual advantage but rather to help our fellow man by constructive attention to his welfare, whether it be a contribution to the Third World development, assisting the unemployed youth, or paying more attention to old folk in our society.
Falling into this category also, would be the assistance given to those groups and individuals who look after the interests of people in our prisons, and their relations, of whatever religion or politics, who have been placed there directly as a result of the political turmoil in our country over the past 12 years.
Constructive assistance to these people would be worthwhile Lenten exercise.
Con McHugh, Damien Rafferty, Davy Wright, Sean Lawell, Kevin Cunningham, and Francie McNally (with the cup) at the St John's Gaelic Athletic Club event
