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.

The Scam

I've spoken to many students recently. A huge number of them are repeating first year. The second time round they might drink less (or not) and manage to scrape 40% in six modules. This is interesting because, as has been reported elswere, Universities do not allow markers to fail people. It's bad for business. You can't charge £3000 annual tuition fees and leave the customer with nothing at the end of his three year party. What would the parents say? What if the customer sues you? What if you fall down the League Tables?
In order to pretend that they're selling real degrees the Universities are trying to make "students" attend classes. Good luck. Apart from compulsory lab classes and tutorials, my course has a 50% undergraduate non attendance rate. This is in one of the best departments in the UK.
Why fail them in first year and not the others? First year marks do not count towards a degree, so you're not compromising their final mark, but why fail them? They, and you the taxpayer, have to pay for another year's tuition. Remember the Universities are businesses, not a public service. They are obliged to maximise their income by any means neccessary.
It's a brilliant scam. It does however expose these institutions as cynical operators selling a product whose academic value has been debased beyond satire. Well, almost. It's often said that Queens should hang a sign on the door saying,
"If you can read this you're admitted"
Jordanstown already do.

Ireland's Finest want You

You may recall that David Farrell was assaulted by a student and his friend some months ago. They appear to have been charged and the "student" has turned up in a very interesting place. He was seen manning a stall at Queens' Freshers Fair. He was trying to recruit members. Go on, take a guess. What organisation was it? Greenpeace? The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender society?
No. What about the rowing club? No. The Officer Training Corps?
It was............................................................................................................................................................
Ogra Sinn Fein.
What were the Grown Ups thinking? A thug who assaults residents is their public face enlisting gullible young hillbillies into what? A Drinking Club for Designer Republicans? The grouping that was widely beleived to be behind the protest/riot that followed BBC's Spotlight three years ago?
What would James Connolly say? his "Whoop it up for Ireland" piece comes to mind.
And what about Queens? Did they know or care that the front man for a University funded society is up on a charge for assaulting on of their "Partners in the Community"?

Share the Love

This was daubbed on a family's yard wall. Another victory for Community Relations.

It's come to this

How long can you torture people? How long can you destroy their lives? At what point do you think that people are going to snap? I cannot condone this, but it was inevitable. Going round my head are the words of Ward Churchill's essay, ""Some people push back" "On the Justice of Roosting Chickens",

"You've got to learn, " the line went, "that when you push people around, some people push back."

This incident's full of ironies. I was awakened the morning after by a phone call.
"Hello"
"So it's not you that was lifted"
"What?"
"Look out your window"
I do so to discover that cars have been burnt up and down the street. I was so full of medication that I slept clean through it. People in Stranmillis and the Ormeau Road heard the explosions. So I can get a nights sleep after all. Just pump yourself full of drugs. They make it all go away. Of course you might sleep through your alarm or the cops sledgehammering their way into your house. They had done just that to someone down the street. The front door was reinforced and resisted their efforts, so they went clean through the front window. It's what they call community policing and a measure of the loathing they have for us. It is increasingly reciprocated. Confront them at three in the morning 48 hours after the "events" and they make it clear that they will come down on us like a ton of bricks. The streets are full of mayhem. They watch it and even film it and make a point of doing nothing.
The papers insist that the wardens have reduced anti-social behaviour by 40%. People have stopped reporting it. They know it's a futile and frustrating exercise. What matters is that the Universities can spin Despair as a Great Victory. It's what they call "Community Relations".
The above pictures show that this is not a happy pleasant place where we all just "get along".
It's not Shangrila. It's a Warzone.

"You're gonna need a locksmith"

Many looked befuddled, constantly repeating the same action over and over again as if it would make a difference. It didn't. The lock was glued shut. All over the Holyland landlords and locksmiths were called out. A house alarm would go off during the repairs and not stop, adding to the frustration. Across the street from me two students tried to burn their way in using a can of deodorant and a cigarette lighter. All they got was a flash in the pan. It only works in the movies. I shouted over,
"You're gonna need a locksmith."
"Nah, we'll burn it out"
They kept trying.
"Just call Declan. He'll come out and drill it for you."
"He won't answer his phone"
He must have been getting calls all day.
"Your best bet's a locksmith."
One has a bright idea.
"I'll go round the back"
"You can't get in the fuckin' back"
His friend's losing patience. He runs out of deodorant.
I leave them to it and go visit a neighbour. An hour later I return. There's a locksmith's van parked outside their house.
"I told you. You're gonna need a locksmith"

Police cover up alert; suspected stabbing in Fitzroy Avenue

I don't know the details because they have not been made public (go figure), but the word on the street is that someone was stabbed in Fitzroy Avenue last week. The area was cordoned off the next day. Police cover ups are nothing new to the Holylands. See here and here and here and here and here and here and here and here. Last semester I stopped sargeant Alan Bell in the street and asked him about the guy who got stabbed in the neck opposite the University Avenue Spar.
"What? I've heard nothing about it."
He has a skilled deadpan. His partner twiddles with his earpeace.
"We've got to go."
Recently this Queens University student had his own close brush with death and has the photos to prove it. I'm still here. Or, as a friend said to me recently,
"You Refuse to Die."
Do you think I'll let them cover up my experience?

Katrina wakes up and smells the coffee...............................................?

The penny's dropped!! Or has it??
Katrina feels "betrayed" by the planning service. Fuck me!! What did she expect??!!
After all the meetings she had with "the Head of the Planning Office" and "Lord Rooker", and,
"Just you wait and see. It's all gonna change here. They've promised me".
Was the big surprise the HMO "cap" that David Farrell publicly welcomed as a "Great victory"?
Now the "chairwoman 0f the Holyland Regeneration Project" feels "betrayed by the planners".
Of 89 planning applications only 2 have been refused. If you're wondering about the 41 that are still under consideration, the landlords have a simple solution, demolish the house. Look at 16 Rugby avenue. It no longer exists. Only the front remains while Michael McMahon waits for his approval.
There are other options. Burn your own property. No-one can pretend that this is not professional arson. Two adjacent houses in Fitzroy Avenue went up simultaneously. They were sealed with steel shutters. The Fire Brigade could not gain access. Someone had to enter the buildings, plant multiple timed incendiaries, exit and seal the shutters up again. This is a pro who knows what they're doing. In another house in the same street all three stories went up simultaneously, hardly an amateur job. A lesser class of arsonist exists. A house in Rugby Avenue was recently purchased and promptly torched. Damage was minimal. The Fire Brigade suppressed it with ease. Still, it can now be declared a derilict and get a whopping great grant from the Housing Executive.
Rugby Avenue is being raped house by house. The huge back gardens are being built up right to the entry. The precedent has been set by Declan Boyle and Kerry O'Donnell. Every house in a 200 yard long terrace, bar the three or four owned by the Housing Executive, will go the same way.
It's time again to ask who are these "representatives" who have failed so miserably. First of all they can't decide what they are or what to call themselves. Is it the "Holyland Regeneration Association"? or the "Holyland Residents' Group"? or the " Belfast Holyland Residents' Association"? or the "Holyland Regeneration Project"? The South Belfast News seems unable to decide and so calls them all of the above depending on the article.
This is of course highly disingenuous. A "residents' group" is ostensibly run by the community for the community. We all know that in Northern Ireland nothing's that simple, but the pretence exists. A "regeneration project" runs on the "parnership" principle which, when I studied the subject, was called the "collaborative approach to community action". Such groups are funded by state and powerful private bodies and service a corporate agenda. With the passing of the troubles many have become "New Deal" training centres aggressively promoting benefit slavery. By their nature they are anti-democratic and act as enforcers or the equivalent of the American prison "trusty". Such is the case with most "residents' groups", but that's for another essay.
So, I conclude with some simple questions. What is the name of this group? When was it formed? Who elected the committee and when? Who are the committee? Who are the members of this entity? Are they the usual suspects; Gerard Morgan, a non-resident; Katrina O'Neill; David Farrell; and Tony McGuinness? Who do they represent? It's surely not this community, the handfull that remain. What have they acheived? Their own cry of "betrayal" exposes their failure. One could argue that they have in fact succeeded. The area has been raped to death by landlords, and that, in it's own way, is regeneration. They have acted as the perfect PR front for the Universities, their "partners in the community". The general public beleives the Holylands has been sorted. They're right, it has, just not in the way they think.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Openess and Accountability

I note that the Commitee took themselves off to the Holiday Inn for their meeting. City church had notes up telling us that the meeting had been cancelled. This is odd, as I was told that afternoon that BHRA had booked a room for the evening. I guess the prospect of pickets carrying A3 photos spooked a few people. When the police dropped me off at the church there were notes up saying the resident's meeting had been cancelled. Some people really want me out of the picture, as the following letter, presumably drafted in the Holiday Inn, makes clear.


Now a number of things need to be addressed in this letter. First, they have changed the name. They're calling it a Residents Association rather than a Regeneration Association. They can't do that without a vote at an EGM or AGM. What they have done is unconstitutional and therefore invalid. Secondly, they have given their address as 12-24 University Avenue. This is the address of City Church. We deserve clarification about whether or not they are based in City Church and how they are linked with this church. Is a non-resident member of it still on their committee?
Thirdly, while I may have been disruptive at one meeting, this can hardly be said of others held this year, unless, of course, they find criticism and awkward questions to be disruptive.
Fourthly, I have not resigned from anything. At the last meeting I commented that a large number of people were so disgusted with the Committee that they would never come back. My membership may have lapsed, but then again so has that of most or all members. I'll come back to this later.
Fifthly, the constitution contains no means for excluding residents. Attempts to do so are then invalid. I'll comment further in a moment.
Sixthly, G.Morgan, the secretary, is not a resident. It's wonderfully absurd to see a non-resident excluding a resident from a so-called representative body.
According to the constitution of BHRA, committee members are elected for twelve months, and membership fees cover a twelve month period. It is almost twenty months since the last AGM. I remember boycotting it. According to their own constitution the committee is invalid and the association has, in all likelyhood, no members. It is dead. It is finished. It no longer exists. I feel the Monty Python parrot sketch coming on. No, it's not sleeping! It's dead! It's an ex-Parrot/Association, whatever!

comments and feedback

My, I've got some angry feedback from "students". All of it's too obscene to publish here, much of it's threatening. I will, however address some of the issues they have raised.
First of all, I am not the resistance. I will neither condemn nor endorse them, but paint strippering cars and putting rocks through windows is their prerogative. The authorities have yet to convict any resident for resistance activity despite spending tens of thousands of pounds per month on a massive operation involving undercover, helicopters, unmarked cars,TSU's etc. I for one am watched 24/7. On one level this is very flattering. the police seem to think I am a one man resistance movement, appearing out of nowhere, striking and disappearing like a ninja. I wish it were true, I really do. Think of all the women I could have, the reward due to a hero.
Unfortunately it's not true, and to answer someone elses point, yes I am on medication. So are most of my neighbours. Living with depression and anxiety is hard work. There's a lot to be said for anti-depressants and, in moderation, valium is a wonderful drug. I don't advise people to take it like smarties. It is highly addictive and it's use must be monitored.
To another poster I reply of course I'm a grown man, so are the young bucks that run rampant through the Holyland. In other countries they would be expected to do military service and any of their juvenile self-centered shit would be answered with a drill sargeant's boot up their arse. Adults should be expected to behave like adults, not twelve year olds from The Lord Of The Flies. Priveleged arsewipes need need to learn that other people have rights and will hit back if you deprive them of the Human Right to Peace in their Own Home and to not be Tortured with Extreme Noise.
Finally, someone's complained about me telling them to shut up in the Heaney Library. Get it straight, it's a library, not your living room. I'm sick and tired of telling dickheads to keep the noise down and the looks of angry indignation I get from these fools when they're expected to behave like aduts rather than spoilt, pampered, priveleged fuckwads.
I feel better after that. Keep the abuse coming.

The Failure of "Regeneration"

David Farrell finally got his skip moved. Naturally they left a mountain of rubbish for the council to clean up, or not.
Farrell, never one to miss a photo-op, was complaining about the state of the place and the presence of "over 100" skips in the area. He really should learn to count. That would mean an average of 15-20 skips in each street and, while we are living in an endless building site, things aren't quite that bad.
However, he does raise, unintentionally, a useful point. He speaks for the "Belfast Holyland Regeneration Association", but what is regeneration? Is it demolishing family houses and replacing them with HMO flats? This is the argument the landlords use when they promote their "University Quarter Regeneration Association".
On the night that the landlords were finally ejected from the residents meetings I saw Michael McMahon screaming into the face of Denise from the church,
"We're landlords!! We're regenerating this area!!"
"You're a fuckin' vampire!!" I shouted.
Denise came between us, slowly backing me away. I remember the look of terror in Declan Boyle's eyes as he cowered behind his two year old son in a manner that looked for al the world like he was holding a human shield in the middle of an angry face off between landlords and residents.
If we use the landlords definition, Farrells clique have succeeded in regeneration. The area has been raped and raped until there is almost no community left. Officially there are "less than 200 residents" and 6000 students left, a ratio of 30 to 1. In reality, there are less than 100 residents, a ratio of 60 to 1.
In their constitutuon, the Farrell clique claim they want to "redress the balance" between students and residents. In this they have surely failed. Now a number of half assed schemed have been proposed ranging from forcing families to rent from private landlords to government confiscation of vacant dwellings.
For the record, the landlords may be evil, but they are not stupid. If they put "students" into their properties they get more rent plus a humongous pay off courtesy of the ratepayer. They don't have to pay rates on their properties.Landlords surely want families to be forced to rent from them, but only after they have extracted the maximum profit from "students" and the ratepayer.
I notice some families, many immigrants , are being moved into the slums in Wolsey street. Flat Rentals have an entire block that are nearly all empty because they are Unfit for Human Habitation. The government can sieze them if it wants, but the cost of fixing them is approaching that of a new build. In fact, it's probably more than the cost of system built housing. As well as that, imprisoning families in an area that is completely out of control is an act of extreme moral depravity.
Investigations on the deleterious effect of "studentification" show that once the student population reaches 10% a residential area becomes unsustainable and inevitably dies, becomindg "Studentland". A government cap of 30% on HMO's, a ratio of 30% "students", will destroy every community the landlords invade. Of course, the government was lying. Planning have rubber stamped a free for all on the rape of communities all over South Belfast.
So now we come back to were we started; Farrell, skips and "Regeneration". If Residents outnumber "students" 9 to1 their community is destabilised and finished. If "Students" outnumber residents 60 to 1 It's been over for a very long time. People want out and skips are the least of their worries.