WE look at the stories that were making the headlines this week in 1983
Prisoner’s brother to fight Post Office over tampered letters
A CRESSLOUGH Park man whose brother is in prison in England, will be lobbying MPs and other public representatives in order to stop Post Office workers in Belfast from interfering with his brother’s mail.
Richard McIlkenny, is serving a life sentence in Wormwood Scrubs and according to his brother Patrick, letters, newspapers, parcels and money orders have “gone missing” and have been destroyed on a number of occasions over the past eight years.
The most recent incident occurred in August of this year when a letter to Richard was ripped across in two places and subsequently re-sealed by a Post Office official before being forwarded to the prison.
When Patrick McIlkenny wrote to the Head Postmaster to complain, he received a letter of apology stating that “the item was caught in machinery in our sorting office and was officially re-sealed by a member of our staff…”, and the envelope was returned to him.
“I showed the envelope to postal workers stationed at the sorting office,” he old our reporter, “and they said that there was no way that the letter was caught in machinery. It was their opinion that it was torn deliberately.
“This isn’t the first time that mail to my brother has been interfered with and even stolen. And ours isn’t the only case. I know of many relatives of prisoners in England who have the same cause for complaint. There’s someone or some group down there in Tomb Street deliberately interfering with the mail of republican prisoners. We’re going to highlight this everywhere until it’s stopped,” said Mr McIlkenny.
St Louise’s pupils and past pupils with the Sister Genevieve Cup for ‘Special Contribution to the School’. Included were Marie McIntyre, Anne Quinn, Jennifer Goodwin and Paula Murray
Whiterock Health Centre
THE finishing touches are being put to a new health centre on the Whiterock Road which will cater for the people of Ballymurphy and surrounding areas.
The ultra-modern Health Facility and Day Centre, sited as it is beside the new Whiterock Leisure Centre, should come as a welcome boon to the much neglected area.
An opening date for the centre has yet to be confirmed, but a spokesperson for the Eastern Health Board was optimistic that the building would be handed over for the finalizing of staffing and equipment arrangements, shortly before Christmas.
“We would hope to get it into operation as soon as possible after that,” she said.
A wide range of facilities at the centre will include:
A pre-school play group
Two general practitioner suites
Social and rehabilitation amenities for old people
A range of clinics similar to those available at all large health centres (chiropody etc)
A base for domiciliary nursing service.
The construction of the centre is being carried out by South Derry Construction, who also built the prize-winning Bernagh Glen Old People’s Dwellings in Andersonstown. Architects for the scheme are WDR and RT Taggart who supplied the artist’s impression of the finished centre.
