WE look back at the stories that were making the headlines this week in the Andersonstown News in 1982
Saint Oliver Plunkett kids snooker competition
Angry Andytown tenants demand action
IN an often heated meeting in Tullymore Community Centre last Sunday, the Andersonstown Tenants’ Association came under intense pressure to get full central heating installed in the estate. Many of those at the meeting criticised the Tenants’ Association and accused them of not representing all the tenants in the area.
The dispute has arisen because of the Housing Executive has refused to install full central heating instead of the solid fuel fire and one radiator which they have offered. It was pointed out at the meeting that the Mount Vernon estate on the Shore Road had been made a similar offer before Christmas but under pressure from tenants in that area, the Executive has now agreed to install the full heating.
People in Andersonstown now want to know why their own tenants’ association was not aware of this and why associations in Lenadoon and New Beechmount have succeeded where they have failed. The meeting was further appalled to learn that their association was not even consulted before the Executive took its decision.
The argument about central heating issue and the role of the Tenants’ Association led to a lengthy discussion on the history of the Association. They were accused of refusing membership to people of the area, allowing the Executive to veto applications for membership, not keeping the people of the area informed of what was happening nor allowing them to become involved, fobbing people off with petty excuses (eg, “we have no application forms”) and running the Community Centre like a closed shop, and not for the benefit of all the community. In reply the Association said the people of the area had not supported them, that residents in streets such as Gartree had put buttons instead of money in collection envelopes, that there was no interest in the Community Centre, and if residents want to change the Association, they could do so.
When asked how this could be done, the Assocation said an emergency meeting would have to be called, but they refused to call one. The meeting concluded with the Association agreeing to bring the tenants’ demand for full central heating to the Executive. The Association refused to accept a proposal that another public meeting be held in two weeks time.
Dancers at a Poleglass social function in the Hitchin' Post
Editorial: RUC’s job is to protect the state first
AS the foremost protector of England’s interests in Ireland, the Royal Ulster Constabulary has every right to congratulate itself on a job well done, as it celebrates its sixtieth birthday this year.
Like its predecessor, the Royal Irish Constabulary, the force was founded for the specific purpose of upholding English rule in Ireland, and as this was done against the wishes of the great majority of the Irish people, it was inevitable that the force would become more paramilitary and less police-like as the years went by.
The main task of the RUC has always been to uphold the functions of the ‘Northern Ireland’ state and this has led to the job of policing our society being relegated to a secondary position.
In fact, Mr Alan Wright of the RUC Representative Body, articulated this point of view two years ago at a public meeting when he stated that the main duty of the modern RUC was to protect the ‘Northern Ireland’ state and its functions.
While contesting the basic concept that any police force has as its primary function the upholding of the state, we concede that this is a view not confined to the RUC alone, but a view that is shared by many police forces throughout the world.
What makes this concept of a state police completely unacceptable in the Six County concept is the fact that the vast majority of the Irish people, and a considerable section of the people of the Six Counties, regard the very existence of the ‘state’ to be anti-democratic and a travesty of justice. The RUC, therefore, is looked upon as the upholder of unjust and undemocratic processes and can never be acceptable as presently constituted.
To say that the RUC is unreformable is not merely a hackneyed cliché concocted by some extreme republican propagandisti but a statement of fact. As long as its main role is the protection of the state, and as long as they adhere to the state police concept, the helmets, shields, armoured cars, guns and plastic bullets will be their stock-in-trade, and ordinary policing will be denied our community.
Rossa hurlers who beat St John's GAC to qualify for Féile na nGael final in Casement Park
Chippie attack
STURDY protective railings have been erected between the staff and customers in an Andersonstown hot food bar after a particularly vicious assault and robbery last week.
Five young ruffians burst into the Chippie and leaped across the counter to rifle the till. The gang members were armed with hammers and irons bars which they used to terrorise and threaten both staff and customers.
Some of the women who work in the food bar were punched in the face by the thugs who demanded they produce more money than was in the till. But when the gang finally realised that the night’s taking were not on the premises, they made off with handbags belonging to the staff and a purse belonging to a young girl customer. A man approaching the shop during the robbery had his jaw broken in three places when one of the mob struck him with an iron bar.
St John's hurlers in Casement Park back in 1982
