We look at the stories that were making the headlines this week in 1984
Mothers unite against glue sniffing
AROUND 100 women from the Twinbrook estate have gathered in the local parochial hall on two occasions within the last ten days to launch a campaign against glue-sniffing and the related problem of joy-riding.
Their aim is to educate children and parents alike about the terrible dangers involved in sniffing solvents and to clamp down on the young joy-riders who are making life a misery for the already hard pressed community.
According to the elected committee of six local mothers responsible for co-ordinating the campaign, “unity of purpose and a resolute stance” can turn the tide on the recent “shocking escalation in glue-sniffing”.
Following the example of Lenadoon, where the community has organised against vandalism, Twinbrook women decided to call all concerned mothers to the usual women’s night in the area’s parochial hall on Tuesday 5 June. As a result, almost 100 women turned up to vent their anger and frustration at the rash of “anti-social behaviour” connected with glue-sniffing.
Explained one local mother: “Some parents told how the people in the flat complexes here are being harassed by the glue-sniffers in the basements. Others said that youngsters were running amok in the now empty heating plant and in the vacated flats.
“The elderly and very young were seen to be at the greatest risk from the joy-riders with pensioners even afraid to cross the roads at night.”
Another parent who recently discovered that her own teenage sons had been glue sniffing, stressed that parents had to become aware of that was happening.
“They have to be alert. They should sniff their children’s breath when they come in and let them know they are keeping an eye on them.
“Some kids are as high as kites seven days a week, and girls on their estate have become pregnant after falling in with glue sniffing groups. It’s a terrible problem.”
TOP MEN: The Cromac Albion managers, Dominic McEnhill, Joe Muckian, Billy Black, Ray McGowan, Larry Stitt, Liam Jordan and Paddy Johnston with the club’s trophies
Community workers fear Housing Executive boycott
COMMUNITY welfare workers in the Twinbrook estate in West Belfast are concerned that the Housing Executive is operating a boycott against them.
Tenants who turned up this week at the area office in the estate were told that they would not be interviewed at all if a community worker was present.
This boycott follows last week's agitation when a tenant whose home had been gutted by fire, occupied the area office for a time accompanied by some neighbours and a community worker. They were protesting at the lack of action by Housing Executive officials to rehouse the burnt-out family or make the building safe to live in. The family had been left without any lighting or heating as a result of the fire.
At first the Housing Executive refused to do anything because the tenant was a squatter, and even when they were informed of the circumstances surrounding the case and the reason for the squatting, they still refused to do anything. It was only after the occupation of the offices that they decided to move on the case and the family have since been told that they will be made legal tenants and the house made habitable immediately.
Community workers in the estate were quite happy with the result of their forthright representation on behalf of this family and it was only on making further inquiries that they discovered the boycott.
"If this kind of thing becomes widespread," said one community worker, "many people could lose out because they are unfamiliar with legislation in housing matters, or because they are not capable of articulating their grievances in a proper manner.
“This is a blow against the underprivileged in our society," he continued, "and we intend to fight to have this boycott removed, even if it takes direct action to do so."
Community workers are now monitoring the situation to see if it is confined to one estate or if there is a general directive from Housing Executive headquarters on the matter.
