DERRY - A STRATEGY OF NEGLECT.......
" I need hardly point out to you that in Derry , unless something is done now , it is only a matter of time until Derry passes into the hands of the Nationalist and Sinn Fein parties for all time . On the other hand , if proper steps are taken now , I believe Derry can be saved for years to come... " - [British] 'Sir' Dawson Bates to [British] 'Lord' Craigavon , 1934 .
From 'IRIS' magazine , July 1983.
The 1963 'Matthew Plan' was re-inforced by the 1970-75 'Matthew/Wilson Economic Development Plan' which , while finally designating Derry as a potential area of industrial growth , suggested that the future lay not with introducing massive investment into areas such as Derry but in encouraging migration from those areas to new centres of growth such as Craigavon .
Similarly the New University of Ulster was located in Coleraine , a politically motivated decision which ensured the relative failure of the NUU as an academic centre of excellence : it was policies such as these that led the architect Coppcutt , who had been brought over from England to design Craigavon , to resign in disgust , saying that the designation of Craigavon as a new city was a consequence of religious and political considerations , and that if Derry was developed instead "...this would indeed be earnest of the sincerity of the desire to prepare Ulster (sic) for the 21st century ."
He added that Craigavon would prevent growth in other regions , and that he and his team were not being asked to make a positive contribution to the growth of the Six County area but to "... engineer propaganda rather than a new city.."
[END of 'Derry - A Strategy Of Neglect']
(Next : 'The Catholic Hierarchy - Propping-up The Orange State' , from 1983)
TOXIC WASTE IN KILL,COUNTY KILDARE .......
From 'The Phoenix' magazine , May 1983.
By 1980 , the local County Council took notice of complaints and the long-drawn-out legal procedures began , during which time , of course , the dumpers continued to fill the pit to capacity . The Council are stating that the situation is under control for the present , that the dump is contained by the ponds , and that there is no cause for undue alarm . Local residents , however , are none too happy .
Down in the growing village of Kill , other questions are being asked and fears exchanged : some residents have pointed-out to 'The Phoenix' what they perceive as an unusually high instance of cancer and leukaemia in a small area of Kill . In the past few years , four people under forty have died of cancer and another three of leukaemia , two of these latter children of two and seven years . Since 1981 there have been three full-term babies still-born and a further three badly deformed foeti , miscarried at seven months of pregnancy.......
(MORE LATER).
REPUBLICAN MOURNERS DEFEAT RUC.......
Between December 1983 and May 1987 , over 25 republican or nationalist funerals were systematically attacked by the RUC as a matter of deliberate British policy . The objective was to drive mourners off the streets so that later Britain could claim dwindling support for republicanism as 'evidenced' by the small numbers attending IRA funerals . As Jane Plunkett reports , the opposite happened . More and more people came out to defend the remains of republican dead , the RUC were exposed as being as brutal and sectarian as ever , and these two factors , combined with damaging international news coverage , eventually forced the British government to reverse its policy of attacking republican funerals .
From 'IRIS' magazine , October 1987.
The Catholic Hierarchy continued to practise the same double standards as they did in January 1980 over the body of PIRA Volunteer Kevin 'Dee' Delaney or in 1861 over the Young Irelander Terence Bellew McManus, against whose remains every church door in Dublin was locked , on the orders of Cardinal Cullen.
Though the RUC attacked nationalist funerals , members of the British occupation forces continued to be buried in Catholic churches with full military honours , including the Union Jack flag on coffins during services . The Catholic Hierarchy's attitude to the recent funeral of Derry Volunteer Gerard Logue was very different : two days after the PIRA fired a salute in the grounds of Long Tower Church, local Catholic Bishop, Edward Daly, aligned the hierarchy with the British occupation forces by banning the remains of dead Volunteers from all churches in the city . He also implied that the family of Volunteer Gerard Logue had broken assurances which they firmly denied .
In June 1984 (four months after the funerals of PIRA Volunteers Henry Hogan and Declan Martin) , RUC men with batons drawn confronted mourners taking the coffin of Belfast INLA Volunteer Paul McCann to lie overnight in the local St Peter's Chapel . At the following day's funeral , the British Army and the RUC staged a show of strength , blocked the Falls Road and refused to let the funeral cortege proceed until an INLA guard of honour withdrew.......
(MORE LATER).
