EYE ON THE PAST – May 1983: Andytown Barracks blown-up

WE look at the stories that were making the headlines this week in 1983

Massive explosion at barracks

TUESDAY’S massive car bomb explosion which severely damaged Andersonstown RUC barracks and surrounding homes and shops may well facilitate the building of a brand new barracks almost twice the size on the same site.
 
For some years now the tiny RUC/British Army billet has been too small to cater for the big increase in military and police personnel and necessitated their being ferried in and out several times each day in armoured personnel carriers.

It has been known for some time that the RUC and British Army have been looking for suitable premises in the vicinity to use as a barracks and at one time the Lake Glen Hotel was mentioned as a possible site. The latest car-bomb may solve these problems as the houses closest to the barracks, which have been vacant for some years following former attacks, will most certainly have to be demolished and will provide them with an almost vacant site to build on.

Editorial: Fitt v Adams

THIS paper has no intention of telling the intelligent voters of West Belfast what way they should vote or not in the forthcoming Westminster election (as the Bishop of Down and Connor has done.)

But as this election is deemed to be important by so many people, we have a duty to pass comment on and interpret, if possible, the reasons for voting one way or another. First of all to the vast majority of our readers the two unionists candidates will be discounted as a couple of religious fanatics fighting more for the soul than hearts and minds of the Unionist population – God help them.

Gerry Fitt, as an absentee M.P. who has cut himself off from the people he was supposed to represent, should receive votes only from those with long memories who may have received a favour or two from him in the past. The Workers’ Party, with its exaltations to West Belfast Catholics to cast off their sectarianism, doesn't cut much ice with people who have been the victims of sectarian discrimination all their lives and who never had the opportunity to indulge in sectarianism as they scraped to make a living outside their own community in an environment often alien and even hostile to their way of life. 

The people of West Belfast may have many faults but sectarianism is certainly not one of them and the party that puts that forward as part of its election platform must have a deathwish and must be ruled out as a serious contender in this election. The S.D.L.P. has a fairly strong candidate in Dr. Joe Hendron who succeeds in maintaining a very high profile in the area. But his biggest drawback is the lack of progress the S.D.L.P. has made on any of the unique issues facing our community this past ten years and especially on the crucial questions of the British presence and self-determination, which are the root issues of the violence in our midst. It's this lack of progress and general 'tiredness' of the party that has caused the S.D.L.P. to lose votes to Sinn Féin, not unlike the drift from the old nationalist party in 1970 to the young vigorous civil righters of which John Hume was one.

The Sinn Féin candidate Gerry Adams has undoubtedly built up a strong following in the area, especially among the younger people and the sheer vigour and momentum of their campaign must put him in with a good chance of election. Nevertheless, it is important to note that those people who will be voting Sinn Féin will be doing so in the hope that strong leadership from 'hard' men like Adams and Morrison will somehow break the old mould and bring about a lasting peace. So contrary to what some people might say the vote for Sinn Féin will not be a vote for the continuation of violence or a vote for the actions of the I.R.A. but rather a yearning for the cessation of war by substituting strength for weakness and straight talk for waffle. This is what a vote for Sinn Féin really means, and no more and no less and people, members of Sinn Féin or high placed clerics who put any other interpretation on it do a disservice to and misrepresent the people of West Belfast.

RVH trade unionists  donate mini-bus to families of political prisoners 

THE RVH Trade Unionists Against Repression – formerly 'RVH Workers Against H-Block/Armagh' – are a group of trade unionists which is  continuously striving in aid of  the oppressed Irish political prisoners. In their latest venture, through organising a highly successful function and ballot, they have purchased a minibus and donated it to the Irish Republican Prisoners’ Transport Committee.

This bus will be used to take prisoners' families and friends on their visits to Long Kesh, Armagh, Magilligan and Portlaoise prisons. The PRO of the trade union group stated, “We grasp this opportunity to thank all those people who have helped in any way, much as by buying ballot tickets, to making our present venture and previous ventures a success.

“The generosity of many people is very gratifying. We will continue our work in aid of the prisoners, the hunger-strikers of 1981 will always be with us, they strengthen our resolve to continue.

“In these months, we remember them in a very special way, rekindling our sadness, anger and determination. No words are adequate when we offer our sympathy to their families.”