WE look at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this week in 1985...
Funeral of UDR murder victim, Paul Kelly
THE funeral of 17-year-old UDR victim, Paul Kelly, took place this morning from St John’s Church.
Paul and four other teenagers were travelling in a stolen Ford Granada car which was fired on by the UDR as it tried to elude a vehicle checkpoint on Kennedy Way. The other four occupants of the car were also injured, and one is seriously ill which stomach wounds. Eye-witness, John Devlin, said the UDR were aware the occupants of the car were joyriders, but continued to direct a barrage of fire at the car even after it had stopped, shooting one boy when he stepped out of the stationary vehicle.
"The car was trying to reverse back round the roundabout, when it collided with another UDR jeep which came out of nowhere,” said Mr Devlin.
"One of the patrol which stopped us, shouted to his mates, ‘There it is, that's the car.’
"The car reversed and then came forward again, trying to get out through a gap between our car and the other UDR jeep, that's when the soldiers opened fire on it.
"It was pandemonium. I don't know how they didn't manage to shoot each other. I just dropped to the ground.
"The car went out of control and crashed into a ditch, they were still firing at it.
"A youth got out of the passenger door and started running away. That's what was so bad. I could hear the screaming. I was by the side of our car, about 30 shots had been fired. I thought after watching that they were going to shoot me too,” he added.
The parents of Paul Kelly have accused the UDR patrol involved in the shooting of murder.
Editorial
WE are sure that British Minister Nicholas Scott didn't see anything ironic in the fact that he was interviewed about the killing of young Paul Kelly at the opening of the International Youth Year Exhibition in the King's Hall. The British, after all, are not noted for their sensitivity on such matters, and you can rest assured that he continued on his visit with a light heart and a clear conscience, happy in the knowledge that he had explained the "True Brit" position in a rational and reasonable manner.
You can be certain also that he didn't think he was in any way responsible for the youth's death even though the killers were directly responsible to him and his other colleagues in the Northern Ireland Office. Such is the depth of self-deception among British policy-makers here, that it would not even enter their heads that they could be responsible for this young man's murder.
We have no doubt, therefore, that we shall see Nicholas Scott or some other British Minister being photographed in Nationalist areas – at a school prize-giving or a business function before long – as if Paul Kelly's death had nothing to do with him. This in itself shows that the Nationalist people must be very forgiving or very naive, and we think that the latter must be the case because Paul Kelly was not killed simply because he was a joy-rider, but because he was a joyrider from a Nationalist area.
Does anyone imagine that he would be dead now if he had been from the Shankill Road, Sandy Row or East Belfast? We think not, and this cannot be stressed too often. For more than 50 years, the old Stormont regime treated Nationalists as second-class citizens, deprived of all rights to employment, housing and even liberty when it suited them. The only thing that has changed in 1985 is that any jumped-up bigot in a khaki uniform can deprive us of our very lives without fear of retribution from the Establishment.
This is a situation we are not obliged to put up with, and when people talk of alienation it is as well to remember that it is not just some silly flight of the imagination but a hard fact of life or death in the ghetto.
LE CHÉILE: Short Strand naiscoil mothers and children with their teacher Phil Carmichael
People organise to defend Whiterock Leisure Centre
EVERY section of the community will be represented at a high-powered meeting next week to defend the Whiterock Leisure Centre against Loyalist attempts to have it closed down.
Political groupings, community bodies, trade unions and schools as well as local people have been invited to the meeting in the Ballymurphy Tenants' Association on Monday, 21st January at 7.30 p.m.
And a spokesperson for the community groups amalgam responsible for organising the meeting, has exclusively revealed to the Andersonstown News that the City Council blocked an attempt to hold the meeting in the Whiterock Leisure Centre itself.
Explained the spokesperson: "Our straight forward request for use of the centre to discuss this urgent issue was blocked after consultation between the Director of Leisure Services, Mervyn Elder, and the Town Clerk.
"It appears that local people are not to be allowed to discuss the future of their own centre.
"Belfast City Council has already announced that it will hand over the running of the centre to Stormont Minister Nicholas Scott in the case of Scott refusing to take over the Centre – and he is on record as having "no interest" in the Council's scheme – Belfast councillors have said they will close the complex down."
At Monday night's meeting local people will get an opportunity to discuss ways in which the Centre closure can be prevented. The spokesperson for the organisers said Mervyn Elder would be invited to the meeting.
"This is our leisure centre and we need to decide in a level-headed manner, what we are going to do if attempts are made to take this much-needed facility from us."
