What was making the news headlines this week in 1982
Josie, Bernie and Danny O'Neill, with Alec and Alice Vernon at the Foresters' senior citizen fundraising Christmas Party
Attempted abduction
THE third attempted abduction in a fortnight in Riverdale has coincided with a brutal sectarian assault near Twinbrook.
A teenage Twinbrook girl was assaulted by a gang in the Areema estate and had the letters UVF engraved on her neck. Meanwhile, a Riverdale teenager was described by his mother as being "shaky" and in a state oj "nerves" five days after being chased through Riverdale after dark by four men. The 16-year old was returning from the shops at Finaghy Road North on Saturday night when a car occupied by four men drew into the kerb and drove slowly behind him.
The boy's mother takes up the story: "My son realised there was something odd about the car and he broke into a run. One man got out of the car and ran after him."
After being chased through several streets the local youth sought refuge in a house at Riverdale Park East. The householder described the boy as being "terribly shocked and distressed". As the youth entered the house she noticed a reddish-brown Fiat, which matched a description later given by the boy, drive down the street.
The boy fainted in the house but was later brought round and returned to his parents. The victim's mother said he hadn' t left the house at night since the incident.
"He's still a bit shaky and in a state of nerves."
A spokesperson for the ALJ emphasised the importance of recording all attempted attacks to the RUC.
"It is important that these incidents are logged so that at the end of the day the RUC cannot plead ignorance."
Sheila, Ellen and Maisie Hughes and Eileen Shaw at the Foresters' senior citizen fundraising Christmas Party
Shankill Butcher close friend of loyalist politician
ALLEGED Shankill master-butcher Lenny Murphy, killed this week in the Forthriver Estate in North Belfast, was a close friend and confidant of a well known Loyalist politician.
During the recent assembly elections, he attended the count in the City Hall on the invitation of the politician. Murphy was long suspected of being the ring-leader of the infamous 'Shankill Butchers' gang, responsible for dozens of hideous and ritual type killings of Catholics.
Murphy was already in prison when the rest of the gang was picked up, but strangely in view of the allegations made against him, he was never Questioned about the 'Butcher' killings by the RUC. Since his release from prison, he has been interrogated on a number of occasions about sectarian killings, the latest being the killing of father-of-seven, Joseph Donegan from the Whiterock area.
James and Winifred McClenaghan, Bernie Coogan and Maureen Hamill enjoying the Foresters' senior citizen fundraising Christmas Party
Editorial: The time is right to demolish Moyard
A BLACKSPOT within a ghetto, Moyard estate now has the dubious honour of being Ireland's most deprived area.
In the last few months, the chronic sewage system has led to one child contracting polio and to the death of another. These tragedies did not come out of the blue. As far back as March, health officials were aware that a local survey turned up 36 youngsters suffering from serious illnesses, directly caused by housing conditions.
Lack of action in the past, however, can be forgotten about if a true concern and a will to help, is shown by the authorities now. However, predictions by the Moyard Action Committee and a Queen 's University microbiologist, that the germ laden environment will result in more deaths and more illnesses, has been ignored by the Minister with responsibility for Housing. He attributes the area's problems to the work of vandals. He is, of course, correct. The vandals were the planners who without proper research and forethought decided families could live in rabbit warrens. Even though this has been proved not to be so, they will not now bow to the inevitable and knock them down.
At present, the determined and sincere Residents' Action Committee is demanding that the dilapidated flats and maisonettes of Moyard be pulled down. In their place they ask for houses. The people who can deliver on this demand, the Housing Executive, the D.O.E. and the British Government, have responded with dilly-dallying, tactics.
It is essential now that all right-thinking people organise to demand not only social equality, but a policy of positive discrimination in favour of people in underprivileged areas, such as Moyard, to offset the decades of sectarian discrimination and neglect.
Peter Rafferty, Peter Quinn, Damien Crawford and Peter and Catrina Cunningham at the Gene Fitzpatrick show at Peter Pan Social Club
