We look back at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this week in 1980
Claire Beggs, Patricia McMenamy, Joanne Anderson, Jeanette McCabe, Teresa Murray, Sharon Conway with their certificates from the Lisburn Féis
Teaching of Irish in Belfast schools
THE teaching of Irish should reach an all-time high in Belfast’s primary schools as the result of a recent campaign by the Belfast Coiste Ceantair of the Gaelic League.
In an effort to promote the language among teachers and pupils, the Committee recently have asked Shaws Road man Donnchadh Ua Bruadair to canvass all Belfast Primary Schools to include Irish in their teaching schedule. Within the last year, a new primary school Irish course covering three years and complete with a teacher’s handbook, has been published; and one of Mr Ua Bruadair’s tasks has been to introduce this course to teachers.
This new course is the work of Séamus Céitinn, a Belfast man, now principal of Mullaghbawn PS, Co Armagh.
In the past teachers in primary schools, anxious to teach Irish to their pupils, have been hampered by the lack of a graded course designed for primary pupils. This gap has been filled by the new course, which is published by Comhaltas Uladh, the Gaelic League’s Ulster Executive.
Within the last two months Mr Ua Bruadair has visited every primary school in the Belfast area. He has spoken to school principles and to Irish teachers, and he reports that he has found great enthusiasm for the language. Many of the teachers he met, feel that they have been neglected by the different Irish language organisations; and they welcome the latest moves by the Gaelic League, particularly the publication of the new course.
The Coiste Ceantair campaign isn’t restricted to teaching the language, they realised that the language cannot progress on its own; it must be accompanied by a renewed interest in all aspects of Irish culture and identity. Said Mr Ua Bruadiar: “Most people, including school children, feel an affinity with and loyalty to the Irish language. But as they become increasingly aware of the richness and beauty of, for example, Irish music, they understand the importance of the language. Irish music grew out of a Gaelic people; and we can’t appreciate it in full without a knowledge of the language. This is part of the message that we are trying to get across. And the response so far has been most encouraging.”
Paddy Donnelly won the Charles Morrison Perpetual Trophy, beating Con Egan (St Paul's) at Market's Social Club
Catholic education concern
THE latest moves by the British Government to put an end to Catholic education (while continuing to subsidise, with 100 per cent grants, Protestant education in so-called ‘state’ schools) are being opposed by the Catholic Church and education authorities.
It’s good to see those groups protest against injustice – though many people will recall their silence, especially in the past ten years, when Catholics and their children were suffering great injustice and assault than anything proposed by the Chilver’s Committee.
Let us be thankful that a stand is to be made; but let us ask – a stand for what? The Catholic Church and people in the six counties fought and suffered, not just for control of religious education, but because the state and its institutions were different from them, and were trying to make them fit into an alien mould.
It wasn’t only a question of religion. The state was, and is, British – and would, doubtless, be quite happy to guarantee full religious freedom (with 100 per cent grants) to British Catholic schools, as it does to British Protestant schools. All the state wants, now, as then, is for Catholics to conform, to be as ‘normal’ people.
Marie, Jo and Patricia McCarney, Sid and Marguerite Warner and Marie Hughes at the St Michael's Treasure Hunt
H-Block conference in West Belfast
THE first speaker was a recently released blanket man from Derry D McCallion, who spoke of conditions in the H-Block Hell Holes of Long Kesh Concentration Camp, and conveyed the indomitable spirit of the protesting prisoners there and in Armagh Gaol.
He said the people had to speak for the prisoners as they were not allowed to speak for themselves. This silence was imposed by the authorities to cover up the horrific conditions in the H-Blocks.
Fr Piaras ó Dúill, chairman of the National H-Blocks committee, first addressed the crowd in Irish. He said that whilst through the generations great men had fought and suffered for the cause of Irish freedom, none had to have the sincerity of the H-Block men. They have given us the truth.
They have defended integrity and self-respect. The men in H-Block have demonstrated their capacity to endure. Never before have we witnessed such capacity to endure on such a scale in our country. Their form of resistance – passive resistance – takes the highest form of courage as Gandhi the greatest exponent of this form of political resistance pointed out.
These blanket men, our fellow countrymen, our fellow Christians, have pitted their moral strength and integrity against the power of Britain. They give each one of us the strength, the power and the endurance to stand up and be counted.
Lily Magennis, Kathleen McPhillips, Meta Nolan and Kathleen Morrison at the Dock Pool League Trocadero function
