We look back at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this week in 1979
Woman attacked and beaten on way home after night out
AN 18-year-old Suffolk girl, returning from the Lake Glen disco early last Saturday morning, was attacked on Stewartstown Road near the Shaws Road junction, and only for the intervention of a passing motorist she might have sustained very serious injuries.
Her family have asked us to convey their sincerest gratitude to the motorist who came to her assistance and escorted her home.
The girl, who takes her A Level exams this week, left the Lake Glen at 1am and boarded a black taxi which left her at the bottom of Shaws Road at about 1.15am. As she walked up Stewartstown Road past the line of DoE boulders in the Hillhead direction, she was attacked from behind by a young man who caught her around the neck and forced his fingers into her mouth.
He struck her with his closed fist repeatedly about the eyes, mouth and ears; and as she screamed he intensified the beating, shouting “Are you going to stop screaming?” At this stage a motorcyclist slowed down nearby, but accelerated again almost immediately.
The girl’s attacker resumed beating her savagely until a passing car braked suddenly and the driver came to her rescue. The attacker fled, she thinks across the fields, and the car driver took her home after first helping to clean her wounds.
“She was in an awful state when she arrived home, her mother told our reporter. “She had black eyes, her nose was bloody and puffed, her ears were swollen and her face black and blue.
“I was so upset and confused that I hadn’t even time to ask the motorist’s name. But I’d like to thank him for saving my daughter. I know it’s too late now to do anything about the attack on her, but I would like to warn other young girls to be on their guard. You think you’re safe at home in your own area – but you’re not! Parents should remember that.”
Punks Dermo Donnelly, Tucker Young and Brendy McKeown at The Briar for Rock Against Repression
Survey by Brooke Drive youths after losing youth club
Ex-members of a Brooke Drive youth club which was closed down recently by the Belfast Education and Library Board, say that the closure was unjust, and in an effort to highlight their case they have carried out a survey in the immediate and wider Brooke area which, they say, proves that there is minimal opposition, among residents, to the club.
According to one of the club leaders who is now a Residential Home Supervisor, the reasons given by the BELB for closing the club, situated on Ladybrook/Brooke Drive link road, were as follows:
1. A large percentage of the people in the area were against the actual site of the club;
2. The same people say that the noise level was creating a disturbance;
3. The club wasn’t being closed at the informed times and being inefficiently organised;
“It’s quite true,” he said, “that the club is wrongly situated but, according to the BELB, it was the only available site and, anyway, the club was only a temporary measure.”
The survey among local residents was carried out by 15 ex-members of the club, both female and male, and revealed that out of 19 immediate householders canvassed, five objected. In the wider Brooke area, no one objected in a cavass of 190 residents.
The young competitors who took part in the Primary Schools’ Handball Competition at Beechmount Leisure Centre back in June 1979
Sinn Féin response
Through the courtesy of your column could we make some brief comments on your editorial of last week.
Your indepth analysis that election campaigning cost these parties involved a lot of money is quite correct. We would, however, take exception to your singling out of Sinn Féin for these abuses.
Whilst we agree we did spend a lot of money in our campaign, we would like to point out the following: If we had had access to the mass media we would not have spent money on full page adverts in the established press.
Whilst we were campaigning for a boycott we were unable, due to the censorship of our political point of view, to get our message across to the people why we were advocating a boycott and why we oppose the EEC.
We would also point out that not only did the EEC provide massive funds for those participating in this ‘election’ farce, but they also spent. Millions on simply trying to get the people to vote.
In your editorial you implied that the money used in Sinn Féin’s campaign would have been better used if distributed amongst the poor instead. We would ask in reply was the money which you received for the adverts supporting Bernadette McAliskey distributed amongst the poor of Andersonstown?
PRO’s Department Belfast Sinn Féin
(We did not imply as suggested in the last paragraph. EDITOR)
Betty McCrudden, Beth Lawler, Una Simpson, Mary Lawler and Noreen McCullagh at the Rose of Tralee International Festival function in the Kerri Inn
