We look back at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this week in 1979
Spellbound playing at the Clubhouse back in September 1979
Exodus begins to see the Pope
WITH the Pope’s arrival only 48 hours away, hundreds of Belfast people have already started out on their pilgrimage of a lifetime.
People with friends or relatives in Dublin have gone early to avoid the massive transport headache expected as thousands of people begin the great trek southtwards. An estimated 23,000 Belfast Catholics are expected to attend the ceremonies in Phoenix Park and Drogheda, with many of them travelling in parish groups on one of the 600 Ulsterbuses hired for the occasion.
Although all parking has been banned on route from the border, massive problems are envisaged as the pressure builds up early Friday morning, especially in Drogheda and Dublin, where congestion will obviously be a problem because of a five mile No Parking rule adjacent to the Mass sites.
Although nobody will be allowed into Phoenix Park before 6am on Saturday morning the mere fact that entry is on a first come first served basis, guarantees that thousands of people will sleep rough on Friday night/Saturday morning, in order to get a prime place at the ceremonies.
Belfast Catholics have been advised not to display any flags or emblems on cars or buses until they cross the border, to reduce the risk of attacks from irate Loyalists.
Mary Finlay, Ross Road; Margaret Bloomer, Balkan Street; and Bernadette Doherty, Cyprus Street having a chat back in September 1979
Editorial
CATHAL Daly, John Hume and Jack Lynch have this week stated their support for a devolved administration in the Six Counties. All three of them, especially John Hume, know that there isn’t the slightest chance that the Loyalists will have any part of power-sharing of ‘institutions to which we can all contribute and give our allegiance’, etc.
They have been offered already; and the SDLP and the Dublin government have bent over backwards to satisfy the Loyalists, begging them to at least give the Micks even a little say in running the show.
The answer was a resounding ‘Not an inch!’
These public men know that, and their attitude is dishonest in the extreme. It is also highly dangerous and irresponsible and can bring nothing but further death and injustice to the Irish people. The English presence in Ireland is our problem; and by pretending that it isn’t so, these three ‘wise men’ are opting for Unionist domination, discrimination against Catholics in every sphere of life, internment, crooked laws and more deaths to add to our latest 2,000.
Cathal Daly talked about the question ‘in Northern Ireland terms’. It is precisely in ‘Northern Ireland terms’ that the problem can’t be viewed, much less discussed or solved. To do so is to hold out to the Unionists the promise that they will be allowed to hold sway here forever by vicious discrimination against the Six Counties’ Catholics and by holding the whole Irish nation to ransom.
The Unionists have no right to do that, they never had and they should be told by our ‘leaders’ that Irish unity is coming and that steps are being taken to ensure that it comes soon, and that they had better start to make the most of it.
The Unionists have no more right to opt out of their country than have the people of Kent, of Surrey or Northumbria. If it is pointed out to them that Britain is going, that that is inevitable, they’ll accept it. They’ll have no choice; and they’ll be better off for it.
Unionist is a crime and it mustn’t be condoned. These public men have spoken of the ‘minority’, meaning the Six County Catholics. Catholics are not a minority in Ireland, they are the majority, and they have the majority’s right to rule – and the duty to rule fairly giving full rights to minorities. The majority’s preference for British withdrawal has been clearly stated for many years including at an election in 1918. It has been consistently rejected by Britain and the crime of partition committed and upheld.
Britain has to go; and when our public people pretend to ignore that fact, they simply help to prolong the agony and do nothing to further the cause of peace and justice in Ireland.
Josie Doherty, Liza McMahon, Margaret McIlvenny and Kathleen McDonnell at the Clubhouse
Only ten per cent register to vote
REJECTION, not apathy, would appear to be the reason for the extremely low return of Electoral registration forms in West Belfast.
Less than ten per cent of people have returned their completed forms and the new electoral lists will soon be on display at local post offices. The Chairman of Belfast Sinn Féin Comhairle Ceanntair stated that people knew that all information given on these forms went eventually to the British Army and RUC and then to the loyalists.
“This is also a rejection of constitutional politics and politicians,” He added.
Notices concerning the poor response to the electoral officers in the area, were read out at some masses last Sunday. Anyone who did not register can appeal through these officers.
Clubhouse bar staff Eamonn Cassidy, Chris McMahon, Gerry Corrigan, Pat Cassidy (manager) and Eddie McCallion
