Click to enlarge.Five years after the University of Ulster invented a fake residents' group it's time to ask "What have they Regenerated?"
When called upon to help, the Extern Organisation could only find 204 residents. That was five years ago. Less than a hundred remain. The Universities have got their campus for free, courtesy of the taxpayer who forked out £24,000 for each property converted. That was generous of us don't you think? The Cancer of Landlordism has spread throughout South Belfast, raping community after community. Stranmillis is being pulled down house by house just like the Holyland. Now there's massive oversupply. Those crazy landlords just keep on going, driven by a compulsion called greed. Now they're invited back to the meetings from which they had previously been ejected. It's Grounghog Day, only there's fewer residents present. Soon landlords will outnumber residents at these things. How could anyone seriously beleive that that place would be turned around?
Denial's a dangerous thing. It enabled a handful of mediocrities to act as a PR front for the Universities and silence the cries of pain from the remnants of a community. What do they have to say for themselves now? Sorry? Mea Culpa? Don't hold your breath. They have no remorse. Instead they mourn the loss of their importance. There's nobody left for them to feed off. They're all that's left on The Raft of the Medusa.
49 comments:
yap yap yap yap fucking yap
students are again objectified as the problem might as well just call myself the problem and go and apoligise to every single resident i meet
residents perpetuate the problems in the holyland just as much as students do
they refuse to engage with students because were all bastards
a big lump of exactly the same bastards not one individual thought amongst us
and residents are beautiful enlightened people who never bear a grudge against someone theyve never met because of the actions of someone the same age as them
youre the worst alan youre all talk
strike that
all bullshit
Very few of us have been paying attention. The Holylands is a convienient solution to the major concerns of the police, politicians, probation services, university, landlords et al.
Essentially the way we're being fucked over works like this: crime figures are sky rocketing. Communities are up in arms about anti-social behaviour, social services can't home violent and sexual offenders in Northern Ireland, Universities cant house their students.
The convienient solution is to great a big black hole where there is no community and so no opposition or collective outrage. Students enable this. Everyone lives annonymously including the dealers, pimps, rapists, burglars etc etc etc
This is not exaggeration. Most people, bar the remaining 50 or so residents, who do not appear to be students are in the Holylands are there for dubious reasons. Beware
The funny thing about it is that for so long we've been banging on about the students [admittedly a major problem] but they are not the worst problem in the area.
Heroin dealers, crack dens, burglars, rapists, child molesters, car thieves, paramilitaries [both sides], violent criminals,rent boys, whore houses,sexual trafficking, organised pick pocket teams, cannibis factories, meth labs etc etc etc
[every example there is based on personal knowledge or direct observation: just cant get into specifics for legal reasons]
Maybe we should start paying attention. The students only serve to deflect attention from the more ugly underbelly of the Holylands. This stops people asking more awkward questions.
I hate pig ignorant students as much as the next resident but when your privy to the big picture [or just start to pay attention] it is truly horrifying what this place has become
Everything on this new posting was predicted 10 - 12 years ago by the then Holyland/University Residents Group and now has reached fruition.
I remember the inaugural meeting of the Holyland University Residents' group. The top room in City Church was packed. There were over 200 people there. I remember some little arsewipe from Queens Student Union, the president I think, taking his orders from a Sinn Fein counsellor and then publicly trashing anyone who criticised "students" or landlords.
I spoke to Gordon Douglas tonight; said I saw him on the TV with the ten remaining residents; told him Queens have got their campus now they've gotten rid of the community. He hadn't much to say to that, just the usual bullshit.
Definition of stupidity:
"Doing the same thing for 10 years...failing miserably and expecting different results"
Somebody has to tell the story.
So are students to blame for the problems in the Holylands?
Your like a stuck record.... why don't you go to Stormont and chain yourself to the railings to make a statement. Either that or do a protest on top of a hih building...
maybe but not from such a one sided point of view and go on and on about personal vendettas and the time you got pneumonia
i got pneumonia-great story wish id came up with it
I agree with the above alan, what do you contribute to the community?
What community? It has ceased to exist. I've been documenting its destruction. People have to know what happened here. And people have to know how it was silenced. It's a morality play worthy of Brecht.
why don't you write a book on the destruction of the holylands. will go down well
There's a thought. If I live that long I think I will. If I live that long.
Worthy of Brecht? Hahaha
Jesus, you need to get some perspective. Either that, or stop using flimsy analogies like that. Oh, surely, it's possible that Brecht could've used the deterioration of the Holylands and your perceived silencing of the fact for some kind of moral juxtaposition to explore something actually relevant to the people outside your tiny little world. Highly improbable, though, and just makes you look like a pretentious and sensationalist hack for even suggesting it; you cheapen his name.
Not to mention the fact that pretty much everyone is aware of state of the Holylands, whether they'll openly admit to it or not (be it the universities, students, newspapers, whoever). I think that's what you fail to grasp - you're not uncovering some major conspiracy here. Unscrupulous landlords, rowdy students and institutions appearing at best indifferent. Well done, you've discovered that what happens all over the world can happen in Belfast too.
Wow!!!!!!!! That was some furious reply!!!!!!!!
The story of the Holylands is one of overlapping power agendas; the debasement of academia; the destruction of Public Housing; Rachmanism as housing policy; the invention and pampering of a new demographic in Mid-Ulster; the sectarian reality behind the veneer of reconciliation; money laundering; property speculation; the obliteration of a community to service the interests of institutional power; the fact that in the New Order we're not free to tell the truth without facing violence and prosecution; the role of Collaborators; the pseudo-reform of policing; the political and moral bankruptcy of the Provos. Brecht would have a field day with this.
I think someone's not very happy. In fact they seem very angry.
Hi Alan,
I'm still waiting for a reply to my post enquiring as to your progress coming off valium and how many job applications you have made since you left the holyland. As I said I expected you to be moving up in the world now that you have peace and serenity in your new abode away from the Holyland.
You will never be a Berthold Brecht. He expressed himself through his writing. You express yourself through a mickey mouse blog. I remember you when you ran a pathetic book shop on the Lower Ormeau Road.
Give us an update on your life since you left the Holyland. Are You working? off the valium? Are you saving the hard pressed taxpayer some money? Tell us about life in Shameless.
Such anger and resentment!!!!!!!!!!
It must be fun inside your head. ;)
the reason you write this blog is because you are a virgin
So what is the deal here? Ive just moved into the holylands from scotland, and did so cause i thought it would be a mixed area with a student vibe, but according to this ive moved into world war 2 warmed up? So far ive not really seen anything dodgy but now im kind of worried.
ready for new year alan?
ready to not go anywhere and watch holylands students have a good time so you can complain about it?
good times alan
Our Scottish poster has just moved into a very dodgy area. It is not mixed. The population were driven out by sectarian bigots from Mid-Ulster. Unless you wear a GAA top and scream "Up the Ra!!" at the top of your voice you are not welcome.
Still...there is some comfort in the fact that the students in the area are having their cars damaged by one another and when that's not happening every hood in Belfast is in their houses walking away with their ipods and laptops.....
Good Times...eh?
bullocks al complete bullocks
students may get drunk and a bit rowdy but there is nothing sectarian AT ALL about their behaviour
youre the one being sectarian here
dont bring the whole catholic thing into it
makes you look (more) stupid
You're entitled to your opinion. You won't be beaten and then prosecuted for it will you?
neither will you you dumbass
you say one thing accuse students of being sectarian
or of mid ulster people of being unworthy of living in belfast
and then when criticised you run and hide
dont make the point if youre not willing to defend it
you sir have no convictions just rant a little then change your tune
you have no overall point
all you have is personal prejudices that are constantly proved wrong
since when did all catholics in the holylands come out in support of the IRA?
or exclude people who are not catholics from the holylands?
and since when were people from belfast so much better than people from mid ulster?
Seamus Heaney-Noble Prize for Literature-From Bellaghy, Mid-Ulster
John Hume-Noble Prize for Peace-From Derry, Mid-Ulster
FUCK YOU
i hate city people who dislike country people for no reason, though there is a small minority who do
explain yourself
To say that the Holylands isn't sectarian is not entirely true- while I'm sure there are students from both sides living in the Holylands, why is it that The Fields of Athenry (along with a republican refrain) is constantly sung (if you can call it singing) by drunks at three o'clock in the morning, while nobody sings The Sash?
People in the Holylands should be more worried about the level of sex offenders, paedophiles, dealers and those who have been 'resettled' here from other parts of belfast than a few rowdy, and annoying, students.
How about some stimulating debate on the blog instead of the same old, same old?
It is getting rather boring listening to the same old sound bites again and again: this includes Alan and the student posts slagging him.
For example: what do people think about the use of the area to hide all types of pedos, criminals, junkies and undesirables?
What do people think about the vast sums of money being made in the area by a few [about 5] mega landlords?
What about the brothels and drug dealers in the area?
Is the Holyland doomed or can we cultivate a community here again?
Should the Housing Executive rehouse families in the area to try and create a community again?
Has student anti-social activity been tackled or have we just got used to it?
Can any students tell us about their experiences in the Holylands?
Let's have something a little more original?
Something to think about?
Some good points. When I have time I'll do some articles, but for now I'll do my best.
The area is a dumping ground for our undesirables. This will continue and accelerate as landlords cram in whoever they can. This will not change. It can only get worse.
There is a large drug sub-culture in the area. This has been the case for a very long time (20 years) and its endless growth in the Holyland/Botanic reflects the blight of drugs on our society and the loss of hope for a whole generation.
Anna Lo has done some sterling work on the brothels issue. There's a big expose waiting for some investigative journalist.
There are about 50 residents left. The Holyland was doomed a long time ago. There will never be a community there again and the Housing Executive should imprison no more people in that environment. To do so is morally depraved.
The behaviour of "students" will never be tackled. People simply take it for granted. Don't think that there will be spot fines given out.
Abandon false hope and demand to be rehoused.
i'm a catholic who shares a house in the holylands with a few protestants
i don't wear a gaelic top or sing republican songs
*does a wee you're-wrong-shut-yer-hole dance*
Chunky wunky winky wanky random insult to student
alan am i
i think the person talking about stimulating debate sounds like they should be running this blog
as they are concerned about the actual issues in the holyland instead of a personal vendetta against students
unfortunately i assume that they are intelligent and social enough to spend minimal time thinking of stupid shit to write on a blog unlike alan
you pay peanuts you get a cunt
hahaaha looks like we finally broke the "unbreakable" alan murray. Hows it feel down there murray, in with the scum that you know you are. All the no hopers who have excepted the inevitable purge of holylands native. We students are just like isreali's, fighting a cause that we know weve already won.
No more ivory tower for you mine chum.
Hiya Alan,
Jesus life is not good to you. Maybe you were still in bed but I heard the other morning on the news, that the residents of Shameless were protesting on the Ormeau Road about drug dealers crime etc. Have you moved from the frying pan into the fire???
Can we have a Blog about life in Shameless. I see Katrina is one of ur new neighbours... tell us how ur getting on with her now.
i think alans lost his commitment no posts short replies
get off the ropes son
Give me a chance!! I'm very very busy. Some of us have exams and trials and shit!!
I'll write some new articles soon.
can i ask if you have got a job yet and started paying TAX?
How did the court case go. Give us an update Alan.
The court case is ongoing, so I can say very little. However the non-appearance of the defendant and his witnesses on the 26th of January was a surprise. The judge was not amused.
Are you accepting defeat? No new posts?
I haven't gone away you know ;)
aye you have
we win
It's hard to argue that you (I'm assuming you're a "student") have not succeeded in driving an entire community from their homes. You have won; and you have no guilt or shame or human decency. Tomorrow belongs to you. Fuck help us all.
I see the English language has defeated you yet again. Another triumph for higher education.
Well Done!!
nice one alan
don't take issue with my argument or points but my spelling and grammar
cos thats really what matters here
you can never be a journalist because when youve got nothing to say, which is often, you resort to insulting the other person
and please point out my mistakes and give me pointers and a little pat on the head and a gold star
you're pathetic at least argue with me like someone with a brain
you make yourself look bad with this spellcheck shite
explain yourself alan
in less than 100 words
without insulting someone
or talking about their spelling
or spewing some semi-romantic shite about the loss of a community etc etc and referencing literature you barely understand
go!
Truth is, he can't!!!
Truth is, he can't!!!
Northern Irish People(Pathetically Leeching Extravagent Subventions)cannot hold their alcohol as eveeryone knows.
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