We look back at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this week in 1979
EMERGENCY MEETING: The British Army Take-over Turf Lodge Industrial Estate see Sheila McVeigh and Martin Lynch flank the speaker, Chair Sean Morrisey, with Kathleen Thibideau and Brother O'Connell from Gort na Mona Secondary School present
British Army take over complete
THE people of Turf Lodge, Dermott Hill and Ballymurphy awoke on Monday morning last, to the roar of lorries, excavators and bulldozers. The machinery was part of a British Army engineering force taking over the Whiterock Industrial Estate which was set up in 1972 to provide jobs for this area of very high unemployment.
Now because of the shortage of building land, the possibility of providing jobs is absolutely nil.
An emergency meeting was called in the Turf Lodge Community Centre on Monday night by a broadly based committee, chaired by Sean Morrisey and comprised of members of Sinn Féin, Republican Clubs, the Irish Republican Socialist Party, Turf Lodge Flats Demolition Committee and Women Against Imperialism.
Among the motions put forward at this meeting were: keeping children from school, trade union involvement against the building and co-ordinated street committees. The platform party were elected to run the campaign and their first action was a call for daily pickers at the site.
Mrs Kathleen Thibideau of the Flats Demolition Committee, stated that the site had been proposed for temporary housing while the flats were being demolished, now this seemed unlikely since the occupation by the British Army. A number of parents were distressed at the possibility of their children being either killed or injured as had happened in the past at the hands of British soldiers.
On Tuesday Brother O’Connell, the headmaster of Gort na Mona Secondary School, put out a statement regarding the building of the fort and an observation post on the school grounds. He also stated his fear for the safety of the children and staff who will be in the vicinity.
At the picket on Tuesday, a Saracen and a jeep forced their way through and a pregnant woman was injured. In an area where there is a 50 per cent male unemployment rate, the housing is the poorest in Europe and there is a complete lack of recreational and social facilities, what the people needed least was further British repression.
Two firms on the site have been given 14 days to vacate, and already government assessors have been to the site. One of the owners said that his factory has been ‘hijacked’. The firms had given much needed employment in the area, if only to a limited number.
Sinead Kelly, Sheila Boyle, Teresa Carolan, Kathy McCabe, Allison Graham, Sheenagh Tobin and Margaret Drain at the Green Cross workers' function
Editorial
WITH the decision to build a new military encampment on the Upper Springfield, we will now have eight armed camps in the densely populated, residential area – Fort Monagh, Henry Taggart, Pegasus, Andersonstown Barracks, Silver City, Woodbourne, Springfield and the new camp.
The British Labour Government tried to buy off the Nationalists with bribes (which were taken away in due course) – remember Strathearn, Antrim Crystal, Poleglass etc? The Conservative Government makes no bones about it – they have opted for a straight forward military solution’.
This is excellent. Nationalists will now be in no doubt (if ever they were about where they stand with the Thatcher gang). The Nationalist people of West Belfast know well what discrimination means. For over fifty years the Stormont Orange Lodge refused to site any industries in this area. Because ‘official’ initiative wasn't forthcoming, local people were compelled to build and develop Whiterock Industrial Estate.
The British Government with one fell stroke, have laid waste their efforts and physically removed the possibility of attracting further industry to the area. It is their most high-handed act to date, and demonstrates clearly their ‘impartiality’ and ‘sense of fair play’.
Good can come from evil. The nationalist people have always believed Britain to be their enemy. This latest act will simply strengthen that belief. The rape of Whiterock Industrial Estate may not appear to be of great significance compared to all the other trials and tribulations which accompany the British occupation. It is, however, very significant because it epitomises just what Britain thinks of us. We are nothing as far as Britain is concerned, she doesn’t want us – and we don’t want her.
There is nothing in store for us while Britain remains, but further death, destruction and deprivation; and it is becoming increasingly more important that “Irish-minded’ people, all over the country, band together to force Britain to get the hell out!
St Agnes' Amateur Boxing Club won the NI Association Boys Clubs Leading Club Award. Trainers Sean Kearney, Davy McGuinness and Jim McCourt (Olympic medalist) with Peter Corrigan, Ciaran Loughran, Tony Currie, Jimmy McGrath, Tony Williamson, Frankie McCourt and Sean Donnelly
Play scheme seeking help
FOR anyone in the Horn Drive area who has not already heard, the Horn Drive Play Project has been underway for two months. The group is a follow on from the successful VSB summer play scheme and caters for the five-ten-year-olds. The response has been great from the children, with between 40-50 sometimes attending a session; but unfortunately not from their parents.
Despite public meetings, leaflets and pleas, the five mothers who have voluntarily given us two hours on Saturday and Sundays are not being provided with the support which is essential.
One of the organisers told our reporter: “Some of the mothers whose children attend the sessions were prepared to stand outside the community centre for an hour in the cold to demand that their children be allowed to go on an outing arranged for the Junior Youth Club, yet not one of those mothers have offered any help. Do the parents consider the play project to be a baby-sitting agency and the helpers unpaid baby-sitters?
"The mothers who realised the necessity of providing a scheme for the five-ten year range should not and can not be left to run the group by themselves.”
Harry and Kathleen McClenaghan celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary at the Pass N' Grove Centre, with children Gerard, Cathy, Seamus, Martin, Tony and Anne
