Lower Falls - is it really 'non-Catholic'?

Recently I announced six pilots for a programme entitled Building Successful Communities.  Three of the pilot areas in West Belfast (1) Lower Falls (2) Andersonstown and (3) Lower Shankill and Brown Square.  Two of the pilot areas are in North Belfast ((4) Lower Oldpark and (5) Duncairn and Mountcollyer.  The sixth pilot area is the Doury Road estate in Ballymena.

 

I was therefore surprised to read a letter in the Irish News (5 November 2013) from Pat Benson, chairman of the Sailortown Regeneration Group.  He started his letter by saying:

With reference to building communities Nelson McCausland has been very selective in the areas chosen for the pilot schemes.  We note the areas are all in non-Catholic districts ...

I had to read that several times to convince myself that I had not misread it but Pat Benson did actually write that 'the areas are all in non-Catholic districts'.

 

Yet two of the pilot areas that were selected are in Lower Falls and Andersonstown and unless there have been some incredible demographic shifts in the last few days they are most certainly 'Catholic districts'.  In fact they are almost 'entirely Catholic districts'.

 

How can we have a sensible discussion about housing in Belfast when a prominent housing activist such as Pat Benson makes such a bizarre claim?  What on earth led him to make that claim?  Does he really believe it and is that what the other members of the Sailortown Regeneration Group believe?  Or did the Irish News print something that he didn't write?

 

 

Teenage Kicks mural - minus John Peel

Earlier this year there was some controversy, largely driven by elements in the media, about the removal of  some graffiti from the Bridge End flyover in East Belfast.  The graffiti included the words 'Teenage dreams, so hard to beat', from the Undertones' debut single Teenage Kicks.

According to media reports the graffiti appeared on the day after the death of BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel and there was a specific reference to him with the words 'John Peel 1939-2004 RIP'.

Now a new mural is to be installed, designed by young people from East Belfast, and I understand that it is based on the Teenage Kicks song.

The original work was put up as a tribute to John Peel, not as a tribute to the Undertones.  This time however there will be no mention of John Peel, who died in 2004, almost ten years ago, and the new mural will be all the better for that.

On this, as on many other subjects, one of the best commentaries on the previous controversy came from Belfast Telegraph feature writer Gail Walker.  In the Belfast Telegraph (25 June 2013) she wrote about what she described as 'the furore among the chattering classes' and then cut to the heart of the matter in relation to John Peel.

 

It would have been useful if at least one male person were to acknowledge  that the late Mr Peel's reputation is embroiled in the murky tales and allegations  which have emerged from the BBC since the death of Jimmy Savile.  Indeed Peel's track record of indulging in underage sexual activity on both sides of the Atlantic is well documented, and was well known for many years, largely from his own bragging testimony, but not completely from that source.  There were revelations exposed prior to his death which, we see now, followed exactly the patterns of prolific seduction and abuse so graphically documented in Savilegate, Hallgate and so many other cases. 

 

Gail Walker referred to 'our most sophisticated scions of art and culture' who wanted the mural restored as it was, a tribute to John Peel, and noted that there was 'a dribbling, misguided, incontinent reverence for the greasy abuser Peel'.

 

John Peel was unashamed about his prolific sexual activity with underage girls and today, with a greater awareness of 'celebrities' who engaged in such behaviour, it would be unthinkable to have a mural as a tribute to the now deceased Radio 1 DJ.

The Ardoyne dissidents

Back in September the Republican Network for Unity announced that they would field Sammy Cusick  in next year's council elections in the Oldpark area of North Belfast.  For those not up to date with the complex world of dissident republicanism, the RNU is normally fronted in Ardoyne by Martin Og Meehan, a son of IRA gunman Martin Meehan.  For a flavour of Meehan's politics take a look at his Ardoyne Republican blog, with its masked republican gunmen, and for Cusick, take a look at his Facebook page.

However Cusick was only the first dissident republican to enter the fray.  

Dee Fennell

Dee Fennell has just announced that he intends to stand in Oldpark as an Independent Republican.  It may be helpful to explain that he was the organiser of the anti-internment parade through Belfast back in the summer.  Fennell is also one of the leaders of the Greater Ardoyne Residents Collective (GARC) which  is the dissident republican alliance opposed to Loyal Order parades on the Crumlin Road.  

The RNU also supports GARC and so we will have two GARC supporters standing against each other.

Fennell and Cusick will be competing for votes in the little pool that is dissident republicanism and in effect next May they will be standing against each other.

For a variety of reasons, mainly to do with personalities and egos, there are four tiny dissident republican groups in Ardoyne - RNU, Eirigi, IRSP and the Sean MacDiarmada 1916 Society.  So by next May we could have four dissidents standing against each other!

They don't really like each other but they manage to collaborate within GARC where they stand together on a platform of 'Not an Orangeman about the place and Not an Orange foot on the Crumlin Road'.  

It will be interesting therefore to see what effect the forthcoming election will have on relationships within GARC and between the dissident republican factions.

A councillor who left Sinn Fein

The following observation was made in the Irish News (19 October) by columnist Newton Emerson:

Moyle councillor Margaret Anne McKillop has resigned from Sinn Fein, citing its recent support for limited forms of abortion.  In the 11 years that McKillop was a party member the Provisional IRA committed five murders.  Where was her uncompromising respect for the sanctity of life then?

Newton Emerson makes a valid point and Councillor McKillop's position is inconsistent.

I believe in the sanctity of human life but that applies to the victims of IRA terrorism as much as an unborn child.

North Belfast News

In this week's North Belfast News (19 October) Liam Murphy takes a look at some Belfast streets and the people after whom they were named.  However there were a number of errors in the article.

1. 'Drew Street was named after the fiery Rev Norman Drew who was a 19th century street preacher.'  No it was named after Rev Thomas Drew, minister of Christ Church in Durham Street.  He was also responsible for the formation of the Drew Memorial Church on the Grosvenor Road.
2. 'Twaddell Avenue [was] named after William Twaddell, a native of Portadown.'  No, William J Twaddell (1884-1922) was not a native of Portadown.  He was born at Ballintoy in North Antrim but came to Belfast.  He married a woman from Portadown and was buried at Drumcree parish church.
3. 'Michael Pratley was later convicted and hanged for the murder.'  No he wasn't.  Michael Pratley was accused of the murder of Twaddell but was hanged for another murder.  The murder of Twaddell was carried out by the IRA but no one was ever convicted for the crime.

Liam Murphy really needs to brush up on his local history or else the North Belfast News needs a new local historian!

Division in the GAA

Last night Peter Robinson MLA observed that there have been changes in the GAA and indeed there have.  Some of the old divisive rules have gone and that must be welcomed.  However more needs to be done and there is still a long way to go.

 

The constitution of the GAA includes a commitment to a United Ireland and requires that a member of the GAA subscribe to that aspiration.  For that reason it is impossible for a unionist to join a GAA club or participate in GAA games.

 

In addition a number of GAA clubs, grounds and competitions are named after Irish republican terrorists - not IRA men from some historic era but from the recent republican campaign carried out by the Provisional IRA and the INLA.

 

That is why Peter Robinson told the GAA that it is wrong to use the names of clubs and grounds to eulogise men of violence.  This is a subject that I have addressed on several occasions and a number of posts on this blog contain examples of this practice.

Some GAA leaders agree privately that it is wrong to name GAA clubs and grounds after terrorists but they seem reluctant to remove this blight on their organisation.

Meanwhile other prominent GAA figures want to cling to the past and Joe Brolly was quick to say that the naming of GAA clubs was 'no one else's business'.  'People can either like it or lump it.'  Brolly, who had a successful career in the GAA, is a son of Sinn Fein politicians Francis and Anne Brolly.  Today he said that he was proud that the hurling club in his home town of Dungiven was named after Kevin Lynch, a convicted INLA terrorist.  Brolly used to play for St Canice's GAA Club which shares its ground with the Kevin Lynch hurling club.

There is clearly a division in the GAA over this important matter and Peter Robinson's speech has exposed that division.  The real test for the leadership of the GAA is therefore whether or not they step up to the mark and face down the republican backwoodsmen and the political bigots in their ranks.

No other sporting organisation in Northern Ireland eulogises terrorists and murderers and this aspect of the GAA is a hindrance to building a shared future and a united community.

They have come a considerable distance but there is more to be dome, including the removal of the Irish republican ethos from the GAA constitution and the renaming of clubs and grounds that are currently named after republican terrorists.
 

Another error from the Irish News

I have not been blogging for the past few weeks.  I have been working on a particular project that has taken up a lot of time and there are only 24 hours in the day!  However I am now back again blogging and want to pick up on an article in the Irish News today.  It is another example of the poor standard of journalism in Ulster.

 

 

Irish News journalist Connla Young started his report on the Tour of the North with this paragraph:

Nationalist residents have reacted angrily after claims that bands taking part in the Tour of the North parade broke a Parades Commission ruling not to play music while passing St Patrick's Church last night.

In fact the determination by the Parades Commission was that the bands should play hymns while passing St Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, not that they should play no music.  The determination was that they should play hymns and indeed that is exactly what all the bands did.

 

A single paragraph, the first paragraph in the report and yet Connla Young got it totally wrong!

Responsible journalism should be accurate journalism.