William Greer - Ulster-Scot and driver to American presidents

The 50th anniversary of the murder of President John F Kennedy has raised the profile of the man who was driving the presidential car on the day that President Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas.  That man was William Robert Greer and he was born on 22 September 1909 on a farm at Drumbanaway, Stewartstown, county Tyrone. 

 

At the age of 19 Greer sailed from Belfast to Quebec on the Cunard ship Andania, as a third-class passenger, on 25 May 1929.  A further record exists of a William Greer crossing into America at Vanceboro, Maine, not long after that date.

 

For more than a decade he worked as a servant and a chauffeur to wealthy families

 

After serving in the US Navy during the 2nd World War, William Greer joined the American Secret Service in 1945 and joined the White House staff in November 1950.  He was a bodyguard to President Truman and President Eisenhower and was then chosen to drive Kennedy through Dallas on 22 November 1963.

 

In Ulster the family were Presbyterians but in America Greer became a Methodist and some conspiracy theorists have used this Ulster Protestant background to support their theory that Kennedy was the victim of an anti-Catholic plot involving Greer!

 

William Greer spent most of his life in America but never forgot his Ulster homeland.  On several occasions he travelled back to visit family and friends in Stewartstown and Belfast and in the 1970s he visited his parents' grave in Ballyclog churchyard.

 

Gettysburg - the Ulster-Scots connection

Battle of Gettysburg

This is the 150th anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, one of the most famous of all speeches in American and world history and thousands of people gathered today at Gettysburg in Pennsylvania to remember and ponder.

The Battle of Gettysburg was fought from 1 to 3 July 1863 in and around the town of Gettysburg and it is considered to be the turning point of the American Civil War.  Thousands of Union soldiers were killed in the battle and on 19 November 1863 President Abraham Lincoln delivered the historic speech at the consecration of the Soldiers National Cemetery.

Gettsyburg was named for Samuel Gettys (1708-1790), who emigrated from Ulster to America as part of the great Ulster-Scots diaspora in the 18th century.  In the course of that century as many as 250,000 Ulster-Scots sailed across the Atlantic in search of a new land and a new life.

In 1761 Samuel Gettys settled at what became Gettysburg and established a tavern.  Twenty-five years later his son James laid out a town of 210 lots with a central square on the land surrounding the tavern and this became the town of Gettysburg.

Samuel and James Gettys were the founders of Gettysburg and today as America remembers the great Gettysburg Address, Ulster folk can remember the Ulster-Scots whose name is embedded in the name of the address.

Crumlin Road Courthouse

Courthouse in 2011

The Crumlin Road Courthouse in Belfast was designed by the architect Sir Charles Lanyon and completed in 1850.    It is situated across the road from Crumlin Road Gaol and the two are connected by an underground tunnel, which led up to one of the courtrooms.  It is a Grade B+ Listed building, which shows its architectural and historical importance.

The courthouse closed in June 1998 when a new courthouse was built in the centre of the city and in 2003 it passed into the ownership of Barry Gilligan, a local businessman.  Ten years later the building is in a pitiful state.  It suffered serious fire damage in March 2009 and there was further damage with fires in August 2009.

Now a development study has been commissioned by my own department DSD, the Strategic Investment Board (SIB) and  OFMDFM.  Turley Associates are taking forward the development study and a public consultation day is to be held next Thursday (21 November) in Crumlin Road Gaol from 1.30 to 8.00.   

Following the consultation a final report will be produced.  This will include an economic appraisal highlighting development routes and will identify a preferred development option.

The Northern Ireland Executive has transformed Crumlin Road Gaol into a major tourist attraction and the regeneration of the courthouse is another stage in the regeneration of the Crumlin Road and adjacent communities.

Nolan nonsense

This morning as I was travelling up to Stormont I listened to the Nolan Show on Radio Ulster.  The first item was a caller who said that she was unable to live on the benefits she received and had just £5 to keep her going until Thursday.  She said that doors were being closed in her face and there was no one to help her.  She went on to say that she was forced to sit at home with no heat and kept warm by wearing a coat and wrapping up in blankets.

I don't know her name but the caller said she is 33 years old and lives alone.  She referred to her local benefit office as Andersonstown and so presumably lives in West Belfast.  Stephen Nolan asked her about work and she explained that she had never worked and had no skills to get a job.

She also spoke about her experience of the benefit office at Andersonstown, in particular phoning about a crisis loan.  That really took my attention, especially as she had said that there was no one to help her.  Two points in particular stood out.

(1) She said that when she rang the Social Security Agency, the automated system said no appointments were available.

In fact the automated message does not comment on the availability of appointments and advises customers that, if they wish, they can leave their name and number for a call back.  Crisis loans are delivered on a face-to-face basis at local benefit offices through pre-arranged appointments, normally on the same day.  Customers can call about crisis loans on 0800 0288822.  Therefore the experience she described was simply impossible.

(2) She alleged that there was 'a big sign up' in the branch saying there were no appointments available.  In fact today was a fairly average day and when my officials checked on the availability of appointments at Andersonstown they found that there were 33 remaining appointments available for today.  Therefore once again the situation described by the caller was contrary to the facts.

That is one of the problems with the Nolan Show.  It is very easy for someone to ring in and describe a situation which may appear, on the surface, very distressing but which is totally at odds with the facts.

In this case after the interview the Nolan Show rang DSD for a comment and officials checked out the facts but by that stage the programme was over.  They have submitted a statement to the Nolan Show and that may be broadcast tomorrow but many people who heard the story this morning will not hear the explanation.

Any humanly devised system has its flaws and shortcomings and the Social Security Agency is no exception but the allegations made by this anonymous caller on the Nolan Show this morning were completely unfounded. 

For those not familiar with crisis loans, they can be awarded to assist a customer to meet expenses in an emergency situation, provided that the provision of such assistance is the only means by which serious damage or serious risk to the heath or safety of the person, or a member of the family, may be prevented.

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.