Football

It's enough to make you paranoid. A football match at two in the morning, outside your front door. It was apparently a ten a side. I live in the next street and wondered what the noise was. The cops came and had a bit of a laugh, some "Good Craic". It's ripping the arse out of it.
The "students" are pushing it and pushing it and pushing it. They will not stop. The cops are legitimising their mayhem. They're even allowed to assault residents now. As for us, we're non-persons to them. Is it any wonder some people push back?

Comments

I've finally found my feet. At the start the flood of vitriol was overwelming. It still comes, but not in the same volume. I publish almost every comment (Unfortunately I could not allow the "Viva la Resistance" one. I would have gone straight to jail.)
There is some interesting discussion in the comments section, especially for recent posts. I suggest you check it out.

"I'd like to Say a Word for the Students"

The "Partners in the Community" have been busy. What with bogus residents meetings, articles in the South Belfast News, and now this wonderfully pompous piece in the Irish News. It reads like something written by one person and submitted in the name of another.
"....I understand the annoyance caused especially when loud music and voices deprive me and my family of sleep"
So far so good, but,
"I feel the annual villification of those who will be our future doctors, teachers, accountants, politicians and taxpayers is hysterical and misdirected."
Fuck me!! Does this person not see that part of the problem is that these fools will be our future professionals? Does he/she want them teaching their kids? If so this person must be a piss-poor parent. Do they want to be represented in court or a representative body by these fuckwits?
"They are too busy working part time to pay their rent and food bills and struggling to keep up with their studies"
Well it's an argument. How about they're too busy drinking themselves sensless and wreaking utter havoc in the street until 4am or later. They never go to class. They lie in bed boozing off their hangovers. Their parents got fat on farming subsidies. They didn't fucking earn those Mercs and 4 wheel drives. Of course "Mummy" and "Daddy" are "paying their rent". The student loans are spent on alcohol.
They don't care that their drinking dens are "squalid bed sits and cramped hovels". They're not victims. All they want is somewhere to party. Mr/Mrs/Ms Holy Land Resident needn't pretend that they're here to study. For what it's worth, the average HMO grant from the Housing Executive was £24,000 and could go up to £36,000. 10,000 HMO's in Northern Ireland at £24,000 equals £240 million. 5000 HMO's in South Belfast equals £120 million. All of this money came out of the Housing Budget. The Government has banned the construction of public housing for the last ten years. Now we know where the money went.
"Consider the reality of student life - no cozy Housing Executive or Housing Association accomodation for them to study in"
What?!! We have 20,000 homeless, the Housing Executive is not allowed to build houses, and the "Partners in the Community" want to make hundreds or even thousands of families rent from private landlords. Look at their contributions in the South Belfast News.
As well as wanting "Cathy Come Home" to be the new Housing Policy the author descends into Right Wing hysteria.
"Serious crimes, armed robberies, assaults on the elderly, sexual crimes, hundreds of millions in benefit fraud........."
He/she must read the Daily Mail, or the Sun. Either way this individual hates working class people; you know, the kind that don't get to go to university because they have no rich mummy and daddy to pay the rent, £3000 annual tuition fees and didn't go to some fancy grammer school where they were spoon fed through their A levels.
"I wasn't smart enough to go to university, but I'm wise enough to know it takes effort to earn that degree and a worthwile job."
Whoever wrote this must be laughing at the fool in whose name it has been submitted. It truly is a terrible thing to be a pawn.
Now to address the point made. These people are not smart. They do not earn their degrees and there will not be "worthwhile jobs" for even half of them. Still at least they can go back and shovel pigshit on Daddy's farm.

The Meeting that Never Was

They were seen coming. They were seen going. On the way out they walked slap bang into a group from the Ormeau Road who were on their way to a real residents meeting.
I subsequently asked a representative from City Church if there were any meetings scheduled.
"There are, but you're not allowed in."
"When was the last one?"
"Um, ah...."
He knows that I know.
"Thursday"
It appears that the rest of the community are also unwelcome as they were neither informed nor invited. We were not supposed to know that it had happened. This is, I assume, what they mean when they describe themselves in the South Belfast News as "An Example to All". They are, they claim, "a formally constituted community group", with an "elected committee". Well, let's have a look at their constitution.
Click to enlarge it.

Note item 6.4 "An AGM shall be held". There has been no AGM for twenty-two months. The committee has expired, unless of course they keep reappointing themselves.

Lets look at their objectives.

1. "To regenerate and sustain a healthy community in the Holyland." There are less than a hundred of us left, and we're almost all on medication. That looks like a slight fucking failure to me.
2. "To enhance and improve the environment by ensuring the best possible provision of public services." We're drowning in garbage, rats, skips and drains blocked by the liberal dumping of cement by landlords. In the South Belfast News they deny the presence of rats. I guess the one that ended up in University Avenue as roadkill must have got lost.
3. "To work in partnership with statutory bodies, voluntary agencies and businesses for the benefit of the Holyland." Ah,....partnership, the prison trusty phenomenon. Work with the landlords, work with planning, work with the universities. Silence the cries of pain while the community's raped to death. As they put it in their recent article "We lobby relentlessly and effectively".
   
4. "To create an inclusive, caring and responsible community." Can't you just feel the love? I did while my head was being bashed off the pavement and my windpipe was being crushed. I remember the look of jubilation in the eyes of a prominent resident (Tony McGuinness) as he watched me struggle to breathe and fight for my life. I'll never forget it.
5. "To redress the balance between family occupied dwellings and Houses of Multiple Occupation." 6000 "students" / 100 residents. Rugby Avenue's being raped house by house, family homes demolished and turned into flats. What a victory for partnership.
6. "To create a safe environment where children can play and all residents can live in peace." How many convicted sex offenders have been housed in the Holyland/Botanic area? Perhaps the committee can tell us. They appear to have inside knowledge. As one landlord allegedly put it "There's good money in them paedos"
7. "To promote good relations between long and short term residents." What a victory. Since when do people who have a home address and a term time address become "residents"? They don't live here, it's their partyland.
   
8. "To promote a safer community. To reduce crime and anti-social behaviour." It would help if those who criticise them were not subjected to homicidal violence.
9. "To be as transparent and publicly accountable, as possible, within our means at all times." I look forward to seeing them in court.

Are they a residents' group or a regeneration association? As I've discussed previously, they can't be both. A resident's group is supposed to be of the community for the community (stop laughing). A regeneration association collaborates with power and fuck the community. Which do you think they are?
Who qualifies to be a member?
"Full membership is open to residents of the Holyland who are over 18 and are committed to the objectives, values and ground rules of the association."
I guess the thirty-three people who signed a petition demanding to be rehoused don't qualify. I guess that anybody who beleives that the area is finished and that the remaining population should be rehoused in new public accomodation if they want it doesn't qualify. I suppose that's why the community aren't informed of or invited to their meetings.
This is one of those Brechtian moments. They should abolish the community and appoint another one.

Police cover up alert: suspected sexual assault in Hatfield St

The reports are hazy and confused. People are openly calling it a cover up. Was she merely beaten? Was she sexually assaulted? There's a police lockdown on the whole thing. This is nothing new. See here.
I will update as and when information becomes available.