Dee Fennell - 'Greater Ardoyne Resident'?

Last month Dee Fennell stood as an Independent Republican in the Oldpark DEA for the recent elections to Belfast City Council.

On his nomination form he gave his address as Duneden Park, which is in Ardoyne. However two years ago, when he appeared in court as Damien Fennell, in connection with his part in a protest organised by Greater Ardoyne Residents Collective, his address was given as Linden Gardens.

Now Linden Gardens lies between the Cliftonville Road and the Waterworks and it is well over a mile away from the Crumlin Road. So Damien or Dee certainly did not meet the requirements for membership of the Greater Ardoyne Residents Collective, as he was NOT a resident of Greater Ardoyne.

I realise that Fennell likes to stretch the term Greater Ardoyne to its limits but no matter how much you stretch it residents of Linden Gardens are not residents of Greater Ardoyne. If you were to accept that proposition residents of Glencairn and Woodvale would also be residents of Greater Ardoyne!

But Dee was not a man to let a little thing like that deter him from describing himself as a resident of Greater Ardoyne, even if he wasn't, and he wasn't going to let the fact that he wasn't a resident prevent him from speaking as a 'resident'.

Of course all that has now been rectified and the GARC protestor and spokesman is now living in Duneden Park.  Well at least he won't have as far to go to be offended.

However this does illustrate something we already know, that GARC is not really about the rights of residents ... it is simply about giving verbal and violent expression to a crass sectarianism which will not tolerate Orangemen on the Crumlin Road.