We look back at what was taking the news headlines this week in 1982
Cosmos Star five-a-side runners-up receive their awards at the Beechmount Leisure Centre from assistant manager Mary Feeney
Water cuts blamed on the British
FOLLOWING on from our report last week of the water stoppages in Dermott Hill comes news that on Tuesday 14th the water supply to the estate was cut yet again.
A Water Board spokesman has claimed that it is not known what is causing the series of burst pipes in the area. Locals, however, have consistently pointed the finger at the nearby British Army fort.
“We believe that the fort has wrecked our water system by attempting to link up with it,” said one man.
It has also been alleged by the people of Dermott Hill that frequently the water is discoloured.
Denis and Brigid Corbett, Eileen and Michael Osborne, Joe and Anne McLaughlin at a leukaemia fundraiser at the Crumlin Star Club
Catholic schools to be severely curtailed
THE Catholic Church's control of teacher training for secondary schools will be severely curtailed when the present proposal for the amalgamation of St. Joseph's and St. Mary's Training Colleges is completed.
The Andersonstown News has learned this week, that the amalgamated colleges will cater exclusively for primary teachers, forcing prospective secondary school teachers to take courses in one of the universities or the polytechnic.
At present, graduate teachers from the two Catholic colleges are employed widely throughout the whole education system at both primary and secondary level. If this little publicised proposal is implemented, then the government will have achieved to a considerable degree, its original aim of wresting control of Catholic education from the hands of the Catholic Church.
The amalgamation of the two colleges also raises the question of what will be done with St. Joseph's College, assuming it is the one to close. There is a growing body of opinion among parents and educationalists alike that it should be developed as a centre for further education in the West Belfast area.
John McCusker, Denis McCann, Martin McLaughlin and Brendan Gilvary at the leukaemia fundraiser at the Crumlin Star Club
British soldiers go unpunished
IN a court case last week two British soldiers who had assaulted a female hospital worker in the grounds of the RVH had charges against them dismissed. The judge also ordered the victim to cover her solicitor's costs for the case, which went unreported in all the media. And, following the court decision, the woman's husband told the Andersonstown News that he was thoroughly “disgusted”.
“It's the fact that British soldiers can grab and throw people around in the grounds of the RVH and get away with it that's getting me. My wife works hard at the RVH and no-one has the right to throw her around like a piece of dirt."
The South Belfast woman sustained grievous injuries to her right leg when attacked in April 1981, with skin torn from the thigh to the knee.
The middle-aged woman recounted the incident: “A friend lent me her car keys to go and get some tiles out of her car and put in mine. As I was trying to open the door two soldiers came along and asked, ’Is this your car? I said ‘No' and began to explain but one took the keys off me and the other flung me against a wall. ...They then opened the car, trailed the tiles out and walked away."
Ardoyne Oul' Lammas Fair Outing returns to the Shamrock Club
