We look at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this weak in 1985...
Residents split on pathway closure
RESIDENTS of the Willowvale area are split over their attitudes to the closure of a thoroughfore in the estate.
The right-of-way which ran from a cul-de-sac in Willowvale Gardens to Suffolk Crescent was closed up last week. The closure followed official notification from the DOE to the effect that they had relinquished all responsibility for the footway – an essential first step in having any right-of-way closed up. The ODE "order of stopping up/abandoning” the footway became made after a petition had been forwarded to the DOE from residents living near the footway. Notice of the abandoning order was placed in the daily papers by the DOE but only one objection was lodged to the proposal. This was later withdrawn. Local opposition to the abandoning order was muted until some residents of the cul-de-sac, who had campaigned for closure, built a wall across the abandoned right-of-way. This led to serious and continuing protests from a substantial number of tenants who say they were unaware of the DOE plan to abandon the footpath and are now demanding it to be re-opened.
FOR CLOSURE:
1. Those in favour of closure live, in the main, near the right-of-way.
2. They complain of young drinkers using the alleyway as a boozing den and a toilet.
3. Thieves breaking into cars or homes in the cul-de-sac are using the right-of-way as an easy escape route.
4. Residents of the cul-de-sac who favour closure of 'the alleyway' are adamant that they have gone about the matter in an above board and legal manner.
5. Young people going to local nightspots use the footway as a short cut. These youths regularly stop on their way to and from discos to drink at the right-of-way.
6. Some youths blast large cassette radios in the footway until well after midnight.
AGAINST CLOSURE: Those against closure of the right-of-way point out.
1. The thoroughfore has been open for 22 years, since the estate was built. Local people bought their homes on the understanding that the footway would remain open.
2. Local people use the footway to gain quick access onto Suffolk Crescent and the shops on the Stewartstown Road.
3. Old people and the infirm in particular cannot make the detour involved if the footway is closed.
4. Some school children use the footway on their way to the school bus in the mornings.
5. Over 250 signatures have been collected from residents opposed to the closure of the footway.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Michelle Webb received the key to the door at a party in Hotel Greenan Lodge back in November 1985. Michelle from Glen Parade was pictured with her family and friends, Una, Pat, Martine and Briege
Editorial
IT’S a sad day for any political party when it hasn't, within its own ranks, the making of a good split, and the S.D.L.P. showed at its annual conference at the weekend, that that is the case.
Despite the fact that the negative outcome of the Anglo/Irish talks is about to inflict a most humiliating defeat on the party leadership, the only murmur of dissent came from Pascal O'Hare and him alone (and he didn't even go to the conference). We don't think that this augurs well for the future of the party, and if there was anyone in there with a titter of wit he would be encouraging a bit of dissent at the moment to stave off the moribund image the party is now presenting to the world. The party has to face up to the fact that the New Ireland Forum and the Anglo/Irish agreement has been a disaster for it, and must surely call into question the quality of John Hume's leadership. After marching his men up to Dublin in true green nationalist fashion, he is now in the process of marching them down again to a position almost identical to that of the Alliance Party, whom he has been castigating for over a decade for trying to work within the framework of a British Six County State. That is what we took out of the remarks made by Mr. Hume on R.T.É. on Tuesday night. He is now talking about the "process of healing", of equality of opportunity and recognition for nationalists within the Six County, or should we say "Northern Ireland" framework.
So what's new? To listen now to John Hume, even with his back to the wall, you would think that the past fifteen years had never happened. That over 2,000 people had not died and thousands of people had not spent long terms in prison. You would be excused for thinking that we were back in the heady days of the Derry Credit Union and British Civil Rights for all. He now talks about not standing up to the British Government, but sitting down with them. The only thing we can say about that as a policy is that Gerry Fitt adopted it, and not only is he now sitting down with them, he also lives with them.
John Hume is an intelligent individual with a lot to offer his country. But in all sincerity we believe that by accepting British dictates for a solution to our problems, he has done himself, his community and his country a great disservice. And by not directing his energies towards the basic problem of British involvement in Irish affairs and their eventual withdrawal, he has ensured that the bloodshed and turmoil of the past fifteen years will continue for some time to come. Surely not the epitaph by which a statesman would like to be remembered.
