We look at the stories that were making the headlines in the Andersonstown News this week in 1983
Jobs put at risk due to Lenadoon break-ins
THE Committee of the Glen Ace Scheme, a group which has spear-headed a number of community projects over the last year, is appealing for help in a bid to halt a spate of vandalism.
The future of the voluntary body, which works out of the Community Centre in Lenadoon, is threatened by thieves who are breaking into the centre and stealing valuabe stock from the association's shop.
During the last of a series of burglaries on Saturday 22nd August, louts kicked in a door at the Centre to gain admission. A spokesperson for the ACE Scheme Committee explained the reason for their appeal: “We rent the shop and kitchen in the Community Centre and we have two luncheon clubs for our senior citizens.
“We need profits from the shop to fund our schemes because we have to provide ten per cent of the wages for our six workers."
The spokesperson emphasised the Committee's belief that those responsible for the break-ins are from the area.
"So we would appeal to all fair-minded residents in the vicinity to help us stop these people, who are literally putting jobs at risk," the spokesperson said.
Total loss as a result of the thefts of stock is estimated at £700. Said the committee representative: "How can a voluntary committee continue in such dire circumstances?”
No light at the end of the dole tunnel
THE jobless total for the Six Counties now stands at 117,126 or 21 per cent of the registered work force.
Traditional unemployment blackspots, such as Strabane and Newry, are still the hardest hit but individual areas of Belfast including Ballymurphy, Moyard and Unity Flats are blighted with around 80 per cent of heads of households without work.
The construction industry, long regarded as the backbone of the Catholic labour force, is being dealt a double blow by Government cutbacks and the unfavourable economic climate. Jobs are now said to be harder to come by than in any period since the Thirties. Even the professions are now feeling the pinch with over 1,000 temporary teachers and education service workers signing on.
In the 26 Counties, almost 200,000 people are out of work and according to the latest report from the Economic and Social Research Institute (E.S.R.I.) 220,000 will be unemployed come next Spring. The gloomy outlook on the jobs front is exacerbated by the fact that the rapid job losses are coming at a time when there is a swiftly growing population. No other developed country in the Western world is simultaneously experiencing both these pressures.
Jobless people in the North will look with anxiety towards the coming winter as speculation abounds that the Conservative Government plans to cut the unemployment rate. Meanwhile, this week the Springhill Community House published a report on the Public Inquiry into unemployment held at the Conway Mill, Belfast in March. In their introduction the group say: "The evidence given at this Inquiry reveals the tolerance, the thoughtfulness and the idealism of people who are in a vicious and unnecessary situation not of their making."
Editorial: Fr Faul split
FATHER Denis Faul of Dungannon has done sterling work for prisoners and their relations over the past 12 years, and this paper has often acknowledged that fact in its editorial columns. Yet his actions following the Relatives for Justice meeting on Sunday prompts us to ask if the pressure of that work is now taking its toll on his judgement.
His highly emotional outburst at the make-up of the new Committee has done, not only himself but also the people he purports to be concerned about, a grave injustice. It comes as no surprise that his harangue received maximum coverage in the English gutter press and a long editorial praising him in the Belfast Telegraph. This newspaper does not wish to get involved in any personal vendetta between Father Faul and Sinn Féin, because Sinn Féin like all political parties is quite capable of looking after itself. Nor are we opposed to his criticism of Sinn Féin if he thinks it is necessary. But we are opposed to him using an honest attempt to do something about the evil of "show case trials" to vent his spleen on a political party not to his liking. We don't recall that Fr. Faul showed any opposition to Mr Hugh Logue of the SDLP being involved in highly publicised negotiations for an end to the hunger strike in 1981; nor do we recall him accusing the SDLP of trying to make political gain out of the hunger strike. Could it be that Fr. Faul's political sympathies have coloured his judgement to such an extent that he sees a Sinn Féiner under every bed?
During the hunger strike we had occasion to caution Fr. Faul on what we thought were his divisive activities at a very critical stage of the hunger strike, but to no avail. Since then we feel that he has been distancing himself from the very people he is trying to assist, and at this stage has become more of a hindrance than a help in our common fight for justice.
If any evidence was needed that Fr. Faul has gone off at a tangent then this quote from the Irish News will provide it: "Fr. Faul asked why the supergrass issue should be moved out into the Six Counties when there were no supergrasses outside Belfast and Derry apart from one in Dungannon. He asked why there had been six hunger strikers from South Derry while none were put up from areas such as Ardoyne, the Short Strand, Markets or New Lodge Road. He said there had been no Provo hunger strikers from Derry.
He repeated: "They know they won't collect any money in Belfast and Derry so they have to go into the rural areas, from Dungiven to Randalstown and from Swatragh to Carrickmore, where the most generous people live."
This we feel is the most despicable statement ever made about the hunger strike and is a grave insult to the hunger strikers and their families. It must also call into question whether groups like The Association for Legal Justice who, over, the years have supplied Fr. Faul with vast quantities of material on which he built his reputation, should continue to do so.
