We look back at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this week in 1981
We receive letter: 'Don’t trust British army'
AN ex-British soldier has written to the Andersonstown News, warning people in Catholic areas not to expect help from the British army in preventing loyalist assassinations.
The ex-soldier from Bristol, who left the army in 1979, says all the soldiers serving with him regarded the loyalists as being “on the same side as themselves” and were quite prepared to turn a blind eye to loyalist violence.
“Let me tell you,” he writes, “if another 1969 were to come about, you’ll get no protection from the army and especially so if a Scottish regiment is on a tour of duty.
“Quite often while on duty on the Shankill, I heard loyalists boast of the assistance they would get from the British army if they decided to move against the Catholics.”
He also talks about overhearing loyalists talk about driving into Catholic areas without being stopped or questioned.
“These loyalists believe that the Catholics spend so much time in the pubs and clubs that there is no protection on the streets.”
“I must say that this was brought home to me very forcibly when I visited Belfast recently. I walked up and down the Falls Road without let or hindrance, visited a pub in Andersonstown carrying a plastic bag without being searched, and went in the Star Social Club in Ardoyne without being asked who I was.
“To date, they say that 650 innocent Catholics have been murdered by loyalists, yet you are still not on your guard. You only have yourselves to blame if you don’t organise for your own protection.”
He goes on to say that he is a Catholic himself and that his father was Irish, and finishes by saying: “I have a certain sympathy with the Catholic population but your lack of security appals me.”
Ursula Bailey, Hugh McIlvenny, Eamon and Roisin Bailey at St Teresa's GAC Disco in Tullymore Community Centre
Editorial
ONE would be safe in assuming that it could only happen to the long-suffering people of Ireland – that their whole future could be determined by a couple of political con merchants over a glass of sherry and a good meal in the congenial surrounding of some castle in County Kildare.
Jim Prior, failed English Cabinet Minister, sacked for making a hash of his job as Employment Secretary, and Garret Fitzgerald, intellectual dilettante, who with the help of the three independent stooges in Dáil Éireann, Kemmy, Brown and Sherlock, holds on to power with the tenacity of a circus bareback rider, have sat down in a glare of publicity, to discuss, we are told, the agenda for the forthcoming Thatcher talks. They had, we can be sure, what the media in all its stupidity would call ‘a frank exchange of views’.
What utter nonsense. Who needs to go to all that bother to organise an agenda, and a frank exchange of views could take place on the telephone or through emissaries. That is, if there was some serious business to be concluded. But we know otherwise. The whole exercise is a massive PR job for two partly political hacks, who are interested only in saving their own political lives.
Party politics in Ireland and England survives by a combination of falsehood and fast footwork to keep the wool pulled firmly down over the poor punters’ eyes so that they can’t see just how decrepit a shower the politicians really area.
Prior and Fitzgerald are at the moment plying the wares of their trade as they battle for survival. No deception is too great to divert the attention of the plain people of Ireland from the real issues.
So on the Dublin summit, we say to Mr Prior and Mr Fitzgerald: We hope you enjoyed your dinner, because it was the only substantial thing to come out of it.
Frances McMurrough, Lucie Paul, Geraldine McCorry, Patricia McCreesh and Ann Marie Clinton at the St Teresa's GAC Disco in Tullymore Community Centre in October 1981
Halloween fireworks at Casement Park
THIS year’s Halloween fireworks display to be held in Casement Park on Saturday night will be the biggest and best yet, according to the organisers.
Run by Scoil Ghaelach Bhéal Feirste, the Irish school on Shaws Road, the show has become a high spot of the Halloween season.
In response to the enormous crowds of children and their parents crowding into Casement Park for the last two years, the organisers have decided to use several entrances to the park this year. These are at the Owenvarragh Park entrance and the three entrances on the main Andersonstown Road, near Mooreland Park, the entrance some yards further up the road and the main entrance beside Owenvarragh.
Clowns, novelties and entertainment are all part of the evening’s programme beginning at 7pm and the school committee are advising everyone interested in going to buy their tickets now while they are still available and so be ensured of a place at the show.
Family tickets at £1.50 and individual tickets at 50p can be bought from Scoil Ghaelach on Shaws Road, at the Andersonstown News Office, at some local shops and on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week school committee members will be selling tickets at homes all over the area.
Get your ticket now and don’t miss the big show!
Sally Cleland, Kathleen O'Neill, Ellen Malone, Betty Gibson, Marina O'Prey, Ellen Carson, Marie McEvoy, Dorothy Rosbottom, Rosaleen Maguire, Lizzie Dolan, Rita Curry and Margaret Robinson – committee members, wives and guests at Grosvenor Homing Pigeon Society and Social Club prizegiving
