Monday, August 27, 2007

Sign of the Times


You have to admire these people. They must have carried this sign over a mile, and that was after ripping it off a metal frame. How they got past QUB security I'll never know. As for stealing it and carrying it all that way under the noses of the cops, it's just a miracle. It's a measure of the quality of undergraduates these days. Look at the respect they have for an academic institution.
If Queens want their sign back, it's in the entry behind my house.

Sunday, August 26, 2007

Tony Comes Out of the Closet

He's done it! He's outed himself!
The figure previously known as "Mr T" has gone public. Tony McGuinness is on the BBC. Take a look here.

"Tony McGuinness from the local residents' association........"

Is this the same Tony McGuinness who was never elected to anything, whose position in the Housing Executive was "so sensitive" that he could not go on the committee? The same Tony McGuinness who attended every committee meeting? Who made him a spokesman? What is this "residents' group" that he represents? None formally exists. Perhaps a new one has been formed consisting of Tony, Gerard Morgan, who doesn't even live here, David Farrell and Katrina.
Is this the same Tony Mc Guinness who wrote an article in the South Belfast News under Katrina's name calling for 300 families to be forced to rent from landlords in the Holyland?
Clearly he wants to add to the £140 million that the landlords already receive in Housing Benefit.

"I think there is the beleif that that the Holylands is the place to party and that residents shouldn't be here"

Well hallefuckingluliah! How long did it take him to work that one out? Where does he think his neighbours have gone? They weren't abducted by aliens, they fled. They couldn't take it any more.

"There's a lot of empty houses here. A lot of the students have moved up to Stranmillis because they don't approve of the behaviour"

Next he'll be saying there are 300 empty properties in the Holyland. Does he think they won't be tenanted by the start of October? Why are landlords still raping the area? He was supposed to have got that stopped. Does he think they're stupid? Does he think they're wasting their money? They know the market - partyland for bogus students; 6000 of them, 100 of us. Of course they think we shouldn't be here. Most of us agree with them. We want the fuck out, but we're stuck. We're prisoners, and he feeds off our pain.

Shock and Awe

He rings the doorbell. No answer.
He gets out his phone.
"Open the fuckin' door!!"
There's a pause.
"I'm outside!! Open the fuckin door!!"
It opens. He goes in.
I can barely hear the shouting from number two. It's drowned out by the noise in the street.
I sit on my doorstep in the baking sun and watch as drunken students pour out of houses and flood the streets and entries. They're drinking illegally. They don't care.
The girls next door come out the front. They're smoking and chatting. One of them notices me.
"Shit!!"
She lets it slip. They pretend to ignore me. Their fellas come out and join them, drinking beers and smashing bottles in the street.
A neighbour walks by. He stops.
My kids have to play in this street! Clean that glass up!"
A hostile silence then a girl says,
"Clean it up. I don't want his kids getting hurt."
He kicks the fragments of glass into the road.
They can't avoid it any longer.
"We're your new neighbours"
I nod to them.
One of the guys starts playing loud music and passing the speakers through the open windows.
They're avoiding my gaze as I stare at them. One of the girls breaks.
"Do you want us to turn that down?"
"That would be a good idea"
She shouts through the window. The din lessens.
I go for a piss and am caught in mid stream by a friend calling from the front door.
I rush down to her. She's been phoning non stop. I haven't heard it ringing. As we go for a walk through the warzone she says to the girls,
"It's good to see you're considerate to your neighbours."
It doesn't seem to touch them.
The avenues are crowded with drunks, the pavements so full that we have to walk on the road.
The police drive by. They wave to us. All that's going on seems not to exist for them. By the evening they've made their point. They're nowhere to be seen as a long night of shouting, screaming, house alarms and broken glass goes on and on till morning.
The two days of the festival make it clear that the long peace of summer has ended. The tone has been set for the coming academic year.
You might consider these events an invasion. You'd be wrong. This was a raid. The invasion comes in October.
Fuck help us all.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Replies to Comments

Well, some people have kept the abuse coming. Good for you. To "anonymous" who thinks I should book myself into Knockbracken I say that a holiday up in the "Big House" sounds very tempting. My friends are amazed that after the events of the last years I have not had a nervous breakdown. I'm obviously stronger than I thought. Horrific experiences can cause permanent and catastrophic damage. Certainly the person I was several years ago has died. However, when one overcomes adversity a transformation takes place. Until recently I could not comprehend the saying,
"Damaged People are Dangerous. They know how to survive".
Well I get the picture now. I know how to survive, even when a madman's crushing my windpipe. I never thought I had it in me. I never thought I could face death with equanimity and say to the madman,
"Everbody dies!! Fuck you!!"
It is one of my proudest moments.
I wish I could post the comment from the resident who calls for resistance and direct action. The police would love it if I did that. I'm the moderator of this blog and would be instantly prosecuted for incitement. As I've said before, I am not the resistance. They operate on a strictly "Don't ask, Don't tell" basis. My private sympathies are well known, but I cannot be publicly seen to support the resistance, nor can any resident. So we have what is technically known as "Leaderless Resistance". There is no command structure for special branch to infiltrate. Instead there is endless autonomous action. Eliminating a single nexus does not undermine the whole. It merely creates martyrs. Cells are not lined up like dominoes waiting to fall when a senior commander breaks. In many ways the Holyland Resistance is the most democratic movement of all. Yet while it is of the people, for the people, I cannot publicly endorse it, but I sure as fuck won't condemn it.

Saturday, August 04, 2007

Enjoy Your Studies

I see them from the bedroom window. They're parked outside my house. Brash male voices talk in country accents.
Time to make an impression.
"Do I have new neighbours?" I'm striding out the front door.
"Well, ah, yeah. Over there number11"
I know who owns that house. Declan Boyle the Ethnic Cleanser.
"What are you? First? Second? Third?"
"Second"
"You're less likely to party then?"
"Well, ah",
He's fumbling,
"Less than last year. Anyway we've a strict landlord"
"There's a lot of families in this street."
"Um"
They're starting to squirm.
"You've heard the rumors?"
No answer.
"Enjoy your studies."

You have to laugh. If you don't, you'll start to cry, and the tears will drown you.