WE look back at the stories that were making the headlines this week in 1983
Andytown News solidarity from the Shankill
THE editorial board of the Shankill Bulletin have condemned the City Council's ban on Leisure Service advertising in the Andersonstown News.
In the March edition of the community newspaper the City Hall decision is described as "another example of Prods who are scared and on the defensive".
"If Catholics are to be hammered when they resort to the pen can we be surprised if they resort to the gun?" the editorial asks. "It's time to move out of the 17th century. Protestantism is supposed to stand up for freedom of speech and expression. Let's practice it.”
Pregnant woman and three-year-old were strip-searched in Armagh
The Association for Legal Justice has issued statements, made by two local women who had experienced strip searches in Armagh Prison, in repudiation of claims by British Minister Lord Gowrie that complaints about the intimate body searches are “without foundation”.
The statements were made by a five-and-1/2 months pregnant woman who was strip-searched on arrival at the prison and 14 hours later as she left for a remand hearing, and by the mother of a three-year-old child who was strip-searched when going on a visit. In a letter to the Irish News on Tuesday, Lord Gowrie denied that these incidents had ever taken place. However, the A.L.J. has now taken Lord Gowrie to task on his comments and are asking people to judge who they believe is telling the truth – Lord Gowrie or the two Belfast women.
A young married women from Andersonstown said: "I am five-and-1/2 months pregnant. I was remanded to Armagh Prison on 2nd February, 1983 with my mother, aged 56 years and another lady aged 43 years.
“I spent overnight in the prison until we got bail the next day. On arrival at Armagh Prison we were all put in different cubicles. I was told to take off all my clothes and was handed a small sheet to put around me. There was a half curtain across the cubicle and I was exposed completely to three prison female warders.
I had to put on my maternity dress without my underwear. I had to climb up along flight of stairs and had to keep stopping to catch my breath. My mother and the other lady also had to undergo the strip-search. Before we left the prison (the next morning) we all had to undergo a strip search similar to the previous one."
“I had black underwear and I was told I wasn't allowed to wear them because they were black. I then went and had a bath and here again it was a half door and I was again exposed. I said I preferred not to wash my hair. I was told I had to. I was then taken to a nurse. I had to put on my maternity dress without my underwear. I had to climb up along flight of stairs and had to keep stopping to catch my breath. My mother and the other lady also had to undergo the strip-search. Before we left the prison (the next morning) we all had to undergo a strip search similar to the previous one."
The three women were charged with withholding information regarding the hijacking of a car.
IN GOOD COMPANY: Anne Marie Donnelly was presented with a special award from St Paul’s chairman Liam McCartan as ‘Supporter of the Year’ back in March 1983
Fears Divis Education Project could close down
BY March 29th, the parents, teachers and pupils involved in the Divis Education Project should know if their alternative to local secondary schools is to be closed down.
For a truancy charge against a pupil at the project, brought by the B.E.L.B. is to be finalised in the courts on that day. This Divis youth at the centre of the row, had been a persistent truant for over two years, but since September last, had been attending the education project on a regular basis. Nevertheless it was only in November that the B.E.L.B. took action against the boy and his family.
"Considering the authorities hadn't been interested in him for over two years, we can only assume that they are interested in disrupting the project," said project worker Tommy Strong.
The education project is located in a flat within the Divis complex and caters for a small number of teenagers who do not attend or have been expelled from school, explained Tommy.
"The authorities want to close this place because they see it as a massive threat. We are exposing the huge truant problem which they have never admitted existed and we are proof that young people being expelled from schools because they are 'troublesome' or whatever, can obtain an education. There has been a breakdown in our schools. Some youngsters cannot adjust to the school system and so they are being thrown out or placed in the one room all day and given comics to read. We were set up to tackle this problem.
“What we are trying to do," Tommy went on, "is give the kids a relevant and basic education which caters for their needs."
The setting up of the project was welcomed by parents of the children involved and is financed by several trusts and semi-state bodies. Community workers felt that it was important to get truants and those expelled from school off the balconies where they were spending their days and into a worthwhile project.
However, over the last few months the authorities have been making a concerted effort to close the project. Parents of children at the scheme were told they would lose their family allowance and one mother was threatened that her son would be imprisoned in Hydebank "for three years”.
Then in late February the flat premises of the project was wrecked when a raiding party of British soldiers burst water pipes.
If the court decides against the Divis Project, as is expected, and rules that children attending it are in fact truants then its closure appears inevitable.
