Bargain Bucket Degrees

A commenter wanted to debate correspondence courses as an alternative to attending university. I think they are an excellent idea. Now that education is a commodity rather than a public service it was inevitable that someone would seek to undercut the competition by, basically, mimicking the Open University. This institution opened the door to people who were excluded from mainstream higher education. Cultural Capital and the then existing numbers bottleneck made university primarily the prerogative of the comfortable few, grants and free tuition not withstanding. Now grants are gone and in the free market universities are chasing each other down the toilet in an endless Race To the Bottom. I entered higher education via the Institution Previously Known as BIFHE. Things have, I gather, got even worse since I moved on. However the new Belfast Metropolitan College is shilling Bargain Bucket Degrees in conjunction with Leeds University.

This means that one can get a degree without ever leaving home. No more need for student accommodation. No more need to move to Belfast. What justification do they have now? Those inbred yokels flood into the Holyland like a Tidal Wave of Excrement. Yet they don't go to class, so tuition fees are wasted. They regurgitate their notes onto the exam paper just like they were taught in grammar school. They are simply a grotesque waste of taxpayers money. This does not bother their parents who, after all, enjoy unearned wealth and privilege courtesy of the UK taxpayer. Oddly they claim to oppose the Union, much in the same way, I suppose, as a high class whore claims to oppose prostitution. A short anecdote describes perfectly their hypocrisy. I found myself chatting to the occupants of a expensive car; the father in a dark suit; mother conservatively dressed; both middle aged, middle class parents, their demeanour dignified and restrained. In the back sits their daughter, laughing through her fake tan,
"We're movin' in on Monday!!! Party!!!!!!!!!!"
Mum and dad are unmoved, unphased. For them there is nothing wrong. I slap my hand on my head and say,
"Thank fuck I'm leaving"

Correspondence study enables those who are repulsed at the well earned stigma of our local universities to get an education without leaving here. Lectures can be made available on line or on DVD. It's just like the Open University only dearer. Someone should have thought of it sooner.

Uni offers cut-price degrees in north

By Simon Doyle Education Correspondent
27/05/08

STUDENTS are being offered the chance to earn cut-price degrees from an English university without having to leave Northern Ireland.

Plans to develop a US-style state college network using the north’s further education (FE) institutions are being brought forward by Leeds Metropolitan University.

The scheme will allow FE students to work towards higher qualifications while saving thousands of pounds in accommodation, travel and fees.

Accredited degrees can be earned for around £1,000 a year less than it would cost to study at either of Northern Ireland’s two universities.

Leeds Met is offering its courses through Belfast Metropolitan College and is working to develop links with other colleges.

The university already has a strong association with the north – its Carnegie faculty of sport and education sponsors Irish League, women’s and schools’ cup soccer.

It said it now hopes to encourage more people in Northern Ireland to continue their studies by making degrees more accessible and affordable.

Leeds Met was the first university to announce it would charge less than the maximum ‘top-up’ tuition fees when the controversial new system was introduced.

Top-up fees – blamed for adding to record levels of student debt – are set to rise from £3,000 to £3,145 a year in line with inflation but courses at Leeds Met have a price tag of £2,000.

Its expanding partnership with the north’s FE colleges gives students, for the first time, the opportunity to avail of cheaper degrees without having to move to England.

With transport and other costs rising, this may be also attractive for many as it will mean saving on accommodation and travel.

Vice-chancellor Simon Lee, a former dean of the School of Law at Queen’s University Belfast, said the relationship between Leeds Met and the north’s colleges was “evolving”.

“We should be like an American state university. We are not trying to be a research university. We are trying to be like the University of Texas, Wisconsin or California, where there are different campuses and different community colleges,” he said.

“The regional college network sees the value of the partnership and we like the idea of students who might have stopped at that stage of their education feeling confident and wanting to keep progressing.”

Students can study for foundation degrees – in subjects including marketing and media technology – in colleges for two years.

They can then either transfer to Leeds or stay at home for an extra year to earn a full degree.

Prof Lee said while the collaboration was still in its infancy he predicted that more students would earn their degrees without moving to Leeds.

“It is possible for students never to leave home,” he said.

University Leeds way in forging new links

By Simon Doyle Education Correspondent
27/05/08

Having already developed strong links with Northern Ireland through sport, a university in England is now seeking to expand the range of academic opportunities open to students. Education correspondent Simon Doyle reports

When Professor Simon Lee, a one-time dean of the law faculty at Queen’s University Belfast, was appointed head of Liverpool Hope University he sought to boost the number of Irish students on campus.

His Hope Across the Irish Sea campaign saw the undergraduate total from both north and south rise from a tiny proportion to the 1,000 that attend the university today.

Prof Lee said Liverpool was a natural place for young people from Ireland to study while Hope itself also offered a small town charm attractive to those from rural areas.

Now as vice-chancellor of Leeds Metropolitan University, Prof Lee is again looking to his former home.

His university’s Carnegie brand is already well-established in sport in the north and he is seeking to expand the university’s role in further and higher education.

“It is obviously more of a difficult proposition than Liverpool because it hasn’t got the historical and romantic attachment. It hasn’t got the proximity and didn’t have the communications,” Prof Lee said.

“When I came I did not want to do what I did at Hope, so for the first year I don’t think we did very much at all about Northern Ireland.

“At the end of that first year, Bradford City football club got into difficulties and I suggested that we see if we can help.”

Leeds Met began delivering sport science support to Bradford City FC and then the following year while attending the British-Irish Association annual conference he learned that the Irish League was seeking a new

sponsor.

After discussions between the university and IFA chief executive Howard Wells, a former student at the Carnegie faculty of sport and education, it was agreed that the name of the faculty would be used to sponsor the league.

“From the beginning we were clear that we wanted to help but it would give us a profile in and across Northern Ireland,” Prof

Lee said.

“It’s not a commercial sponsorship and it is not like an average university somewhere in Scotland or England deciding randomly to try and recruit students from Northern Ireland.

“There is a real human relationship at all sorts of levels through the university.

“We have a real opportunity to develop relationships with schools, young people, their families and we are not just trying to recruit anybody and everybody.”

The university has also launch-ed a new partnership with Rugby League Ireland which will see players benefit from Carnegie’s sporting expertise in developing players, coaches and officials.

Prof Lee said Leeds Met had also forged strong cultural and academic partnerships and had developed links with about 20 different colleges across “the north of these islands” – including Hull, Grimsby, Belfast and Derry.

He said the relationship with Northern Ireland colleges was “evolving”.

“We should be like an American state university. We are not trying to be a research university. We are trying to be like the University of Texas, Wisconsin or California, where there are different campuses and different community colleges,” Prof Lee said.

“In America you might study two years at your local community college and then decide you want to go on to the big city in your state.

“In England the government introduced foundation degrees and that has now rippled out through the rest of these islands and the model is two years and one year for topping up.”

Prof Lee said the initial idea was for Further Education colleges to teach the two-year foundation degrees, with students then travelling to Leeds to top-up to a full degree in their third year.

However, he said that this had changed because the British government was giving colleges the power to award their own foundation degrees.

“In general the regional college network sees the value of the partnership and we like the idea of students who might have stopped at that stage of their education feeling confident and wanting to keep progressing,” Prof Lee said.

“It is a very gradual process. We are dealing with the north – the north of Ireland, the north of England and Scotland.”

A college that Leeds Met has strong links with in Dunfermline, formerly known as Lauder College, has changed its name to Carnegie College.

Prof Lee said he could see one of the north’s institutions making a similar name change.

Among the Leeds degree courses offered through Belfast Metropolitan University is the BA (Hons) in Marketing.

“In principle you can do the degree in anything,” Prof Lee said.

“What tends to happen is a college develops a course for its local economy. Probably what would happen would be students going for a more generic top-up year such as in enterprise.

“If you are going to widen

participation in the north of Ireland, you have often got to hook a youngster or a returning- to-learning person into something they feel very confident in. You take them through to foundation degree and then you branch out.”

Prof Lee said the relationship was still in its infancy and he believed that more students would choose the distance-learning option.

“It is possible for them never to leave home,” he said.

“The numbers are too small to say what the pattern will be, but I think it will mostly be staying at home.”

Suzie Gray, head of higher education at Belfast Metropolitan College, said the collaboration contributed to the continued professional development of college staff, which in turn benefited students.

“Our strategic partnership with Leeds Metropolitan University not only provides opportunities for curriculum development within the college, it provides our students with progression opportunities here in Northern Ireland, thereby increasing the likelihood that they will forge their career closer to home and make a longer-term contribution to the local economy,” she said.

Dancing on our Dead

Click on these to enlarge:




Smears, slurs and innuendo. Where does it end?
"....his death would have come as a relief"
No, it's not enough to dance on his grave. He, and all other residents, are labeled as thugs, criminals and sex offenders. The editors of the Gown, in a desperate attempt to save face, have put a half-hearted and dishonest "Clarification" on their blog. See here. Queens' University, which must have sanctioned this demolition job on the remaining residents, has gone into lockdown mode. To pretend that "students", who do not live in the Holyland, but merely use it as a drinking den and flophouse, while abusing education, are in fact "residents" adds insult to insult to injury. Clearly the privileged scum, who have driven an entire community from their homes, are not the problem. The remaining residents, imprisoned in a lunatic asylum, are what's wrong. They should not be allowed to live there. The ethnic cleansing should be completed. How dare anyone hit back. People should know their place and stay in it and shut the fuck up. Arbuckle never admitted torching the cars. No-one who hits back ever admits anything. This drives the cops up the walls. It also costs them a fortune. The resources committed to containing the frustration of a handful of people are so huge that it would be cheaper to build them new houses.

A few years ago six hillbillies beat Arbuckle with iron bars. They nearly killed him. I bet the cops wish they had. To treat the collapse and death of a 25 year old as "Not Suspicious" shows that they don't care. Someone who stood up and fought back is dead and can be subjected to posthumous character assassination. That's all that matters. The horror, intimidation and violence inflicted on residents is whitewashed out. The narrative is inverted; "innocent" "Students" are tormented by "evil residents". Perhaps the editors of the Gown could tell me: where has the community gone? They were not abducted by aliens and they did not want to leave their homes. Life had become intolerable for them. Now I am one of the refugees. I have escaped from hell and enjoy the luxury of sleep at night in the peace of silence. I do not know how or if the man who swapped house with me will cope. It is not a redemptive ending. We don't do that here. Maybe we don't deserve it.
"No nation in this world are as morally debased as the People of Ireland"
Connolly knew what he was talking about. After all a party of the Criminal Hard Right names their Head Office after him.

Arbuckle was no angel, but he had many friends. His funeral and interment moved a lot of people to tears. He is remembered here

Tony's Fraudulent Article

I was beaten almost to death for exposing this as a fraud.

Click on it to enlarge:-


For a description of the row resulting from it see here and here.

PACT: Pigs And Collaborators Together

They're finally launching their new forum. The Community Police Liaison Committee collapsed because nobody went to it. Here comes it's replacement. You will remember I have previously described a proposal to pervert Restorative Justice and turn it into a vehicle for The universities, their Bogus Students, cops, landlords and the local Housing Association to isolate, intimidate and silence residents. We will be obliged to confront our tormentors face to face. We will become Targets. The number of complaints will fall through the floor. We will be told what a great success it has all been.

I expect heavy Provo involvement in this. After all their man, the Head of Restorative Justice in West Belfast, has been a tout for years if not decades. As I've said in the comments section, Downing Street has been not only writing Provo press statements, but appears to also be producing front page articles for the Andytown News. It's "Zero Tolerance" for working class people. Well we surely have that here. Such a policy will not apply to Rich Scum, who are above the law. What are Ogra Sinn Fein gonna say,
"Arrest and prosecute us and our mates"?
Some fucking chance.
There are others who are above the law: the "Partners in the Community" are allowed to do whatever they want, up to and including Homicidal Violence, and the cops will bend over backwards to make sure they get away with it. Lets face it, murders go unsolved round here.

This "New Initiative" is old piss in new bottles. PACT: Partners And Communities Together. Fuck that. Its PACT: Pigs And Collaborators Together.

"Who let da Dogs out?"

"Woof woof woof, Woof woof!!!!!"
They're laughing at the cops. They know it's all for show; the dogs, the armoured vehicles, the riot squad. A meat wagon pulls up. A local is led away. The cops have roughed him up. He defended his brother and clobbered a "student". It's a no-no. Don't protect your own from drunken hillbillies. The Stasi zoom in on kids with baseball hats; Zero Tolerance for Residents. The Andytown News would be proud. For the rich scum it's different; its a big fucking pantomime. At least the cops have the decency to be angry at these cunts. Maybe it's frustration; they can't do to them what they did to us when they dragged us off the Ormeau Road. There'll be no plastic bullets in the face for rich cunts, no Billy-Clubs wrapped round the head, no being trailed through broken glass.
They're singing,
"We all live in the Holy-Holy Land, Holy-Holy Land, Holy-Holy land"
The cops are desperate. They can't afford to lose this showdown.
"We need you to step back, Mr Murray. We have a public order situation."
"Is there an O.C. here?"
"Ask the sergeants. They're dealing with this"
There's no commander on the ground. Jim Young, local Inspector, is nowhere.
An officer pretends to film the mob. She can't even operate the camcorder.
The cops are engaging them, taking their drink and pouring it away. Bottles fly. The cops are arguing with them, pushing them back.
"Throwing bottles is a criminal offence!!!"
I would have thought this was obvious. A previous Inspector thought different.
It takes a hundred cops, a company level unit, to deal with five houses. If St Patrick's Day had happened during Term Time they would have had no hope. In previous years we have had 6000 drunken yokels inflicting Mob Rule for 48 hours solid while the cops drive by and watch, doing nothing.
Slowly the "students" disperse. They have other places to be, a mini-riot in the Hatfield to enjoy.We had a homeopathic dose of culture this year. Only a handful of these people were up, the rest having no classes and no excuse for being here. Parental authority was presumably exercised. It is a suitably rare occurrence. No-one need claim that progress has been made. Token gestures don't fool the "students". Remember, it was one of us, not them that was hauled away.
In their enthusiasm to go the cops abandon a landrover. The "students" bleed the tyres, leaving it stranded like a ship on the rocks. It's an appropriate metaphor for the whole situation.

They've abolished the community and invented another one

I'm being prosecuted for writing this, so I thought it was worthwhile to look at the success of our self-appointed representatives.

Queens have renamed the area. The word Holylands has obvious embarrassing connotations.

From now on the area previously known as the Holylands will be known as Queens' Quarter


The Belfast Holyland Regeneration Association has been so successful that the handwriting's on the wall.



I thought I'd give you a guided tour through the new Queens' Quarter.


As you can see, the "students" have got their priorities straight.

Because their tenants are "students", the landlords do not have to pay rates on their properties. This is one of a number of massive redistributions of wealth from you, the public, into the pockets of the super-rich. Let's look at the service provided by Belfast City Council with your money.


The landlords refuse to buy wheelie bins, so your rates are paying for these industrial Eurobins. At one point the council took them out, so you can imagine what things were like without them.


In the South Belfast News BHRA claimed that we don't have rats here. I kid you not.





You may have noticed that we are in the middle of a housing crisis. Over the last ten years homelessness has trebled from 7,000 to 20,000. Someone somewhere is proud of this achievement. The reasons behind it merit investigation. Ten years ago, in the wake of the Good Friday Agreement, a hidden agenda began to unfold. The Housing Executive was prohibited from building houses. The funds were redirected elsewhere. The official responsible for doling out conversion grants to landlords revealed at a residents' meeting that the average grant per property was £24,000 and could go up to £36,000. It appears that the entire housing budget, untold tens of millions of pounds, has been doled out to property developers and has financed the rape of communities all over South Belfast and the rest of the province. The application of simple mathematics suggests a truly shocking figure. 10,000 HMO's in Northern Ireland multiplied by £24,000 per property equals £240 million, of which £120 million would have been doled out in South Belfast alone. This is an enormous redistribution of wealth from the public to the Rentier Class. I feel a James Connolly quote coming on, but will refrain lest I offend those who desecrate his name by hanging it on the front door of their head office.

Let's see what the modern day Rachmans have got for your money.

Families used to live here

And here


and here

and here




Another one bites the dust......
OOPS!!!!!

As you're probably aware, the cops have a crisis of credibility when it comes to community relations.



That completes this tour of the new Queens' Quarter. Those of us who remember when the Holyland was a cultured, Bohemian, tolerant place where we were free to be ourselves and not some sectarian stereotype will forever mourn it's passing.

"Students are Victims". Thus spake Farrell

It's hard to think of privileged thugs as victims, but our former spokesman thinks so. The narrative of victimhood is so perverse that the perpetrators of this and this and this and this can be called victims.
Next he says it's all the fault of planning. The landlords have not raped this community to death, it was planning's fault for allowing them. No matter how evil the act, do not hold the powerful and the privileged accountable for their actions and the resulting, intended, consequences.

Farrell wanted the landlords to attend meetings of his "Regeneration Association". No doubt they'll be invited back. After all, they're part of this "Restorative Justice" initiative that will compel residents who complain to face their tormentors and make targets of themselves. When the number of complaints falls through the floor we'll be told how successful it has been.

The Nolan Show has exposed the truth that we are not wanted here. Why, therefore, are we not rehoused? Why should anyone be obliged to live in this environment? Farrell owns his home. He chooses to stay and deprive his family of peace. If he wants, he can leave any time. Most of us have no option. We're renting from a housing association that treats us with utter disdain. They can't even be bothered to fix a leaking bath. You will not be surprised to hear that on their management committee sits a certain David Farrell. Suffice it to say, we did not elect him. He might at least have had a bath before having his photo taken for inclusion in their annual report. The image brings forth the smell of stale booze and body odour. That's our spokesman. Is it any wonder no one goes to his meetings?

Fake Residents group: Update

I wrote this in the comments section in reply to someone who wanted to know how the Fake Residents Group are getting on. I think it merits publishing as a post.

On the evening of the last meeting I was in common grounds cafe. Anne Monaghan was coming and going looking smug. At one point she smiled at me. I smiled back. She didn't stay for long. The meeting appears to have folded after half an hour. I suspect they lacked a quorum, or, to put it differently, no-one bothered going.

I was at the latest Community Police Liaison Committee meeting. I was the only resident from anywhere in the University sector to attend. The Holylands self-appointed representatives no longer go as they can't bear to be in the same room as me. Some months ago Tony McGuinness threw a tantrum at a CPLC meeting because the cops would not remove me. It was quite funny to watch. Some months ago the cops tried to exclude me from any meeting attended by Katrina O'Neill. My barrister tore Stevie Kingsman to shreds. You can read about it here.

There is obviously a crisis of confidence in the cops. Go figure. The CPLC has been wound up. The cops are planning an alternative forum. I assume this is where they will pervert restorative justice and turn it into a vehicle for landlords, the cops, the universities and their "students" to terrorise isolate and silence residents. Naturally the local housing association under Dermot Curran are moist with enthusiasm at this. I think that the power of eviction gives some people more pleasure than sex. Social predators are always drawn to positions of power over the vulnerable. I've seen it in hostels and I've seen it in landlords, whether of the private or "Social" kind. Shit floats. Institutional power is always fundamentally psychopathic (Chomsky).

2:57 PM

Loathing is the Sincerest form of Flattery

I'm truly honoured. This goes beyond plagiarism or even satire. It is magnificent. The author copies my style and turns it around, completely inverting it's meaning. The effort poured into every word is simply admirable. Only obsession could drive such a project. The compulsive striving to "get at" Alan Murray can only be driven by a profound loathing. It is remorseless. To have acquired an enemy with such a monomania fills me with pride. It is one thing to be hated, but such a skillfull and eloquent expression of hatred is a complement beyond words.

http://hollylands-wearzon.blogspot.com/

http://www.blogger.com/profile/09223055291748366556

A Matter of Numbers

I posted this in the comments section. I think it's worth publishing as an article in it's own right.

For many years now there has been an argument about percentages. In a different life I was a student representative (the worst decision I ever made)and bought into the notion that it's a small minority causing mayhem, no more than ten percent. Way back then there was talk of introducing restorative justice in the Holylands. At the time, and we're talking eight years ago, this made intuitive sense. Involve the students in the community; make them feel accountable and responsible for their actions. I was such a deluded fool. Residents were selling up en masse. I remember attending the inaugural meeting of the original residents' group. The top room in city church was packed. There must have been 200 people there. That group folded and now we have the fake resident's group, sponsored by the University of Ulster and currently headed by their former community relations officer. The illegitimacy of this entity can be measured by attendance at it's meetings; always in single figures, many of them non-residents;- Anne Monaghan, Gerard Morgan, Denise from city church. About half of the committee are non-residents. The community is almost completely extinguished. There are less than a hundred residents left.

Over eight years my position has changed. If half of Queens undergraduates don't go to class, one can assume that half of them are bogus students, only up here to party. Because of its reputation, it's safe to say that a disproportionately high percentage of "students" in the Holyland are bogus. That means that the vast majority are party animals abusing education, and a small, but significant minority are genuine. This is the universities unofficial campus, and the academic progress of genuine students must suffer. My own experience is a rather extreme example, but must reflect to some degree the debilitation suffered by all who try to study here. A neighbour of mine is furious and outraged at the effect on her daughter's A-levels. Naturally the Universities' representatives have been suitably unhelpful in addressing her grievances. Anne Monaghan set a disgusting precedent when she represented the University of Ulster. Her footsteps are clear and easy for her successors to follow.

The wheel has, grotesquely, come full circle. Restorative Justice is again on the agenda. It has the support of Jim Young, our new Police inspector and Dermot Curran, chair of the dominant local housing association. I would love to know what planet these people are living on. They are either pious fools or sinister operators. Dermot Curran insists that people have no right to oppose this, after all "It's an attempt to resolve the situation". He doesn't live here and his attempts to compare this place to apparently successful efforts in Poleglass are absurd. Community Restorative Justice requires the existence of a stable community. Such a point is so obvious that only the deluded could fail to see it. There are 100 residents and 6000 "students". If you complain you make yourself a target. The police refuse to protect us, the universities use a variety of initiatives as "perception management", and the "students" make it clear that this is their area and we are not wanted. We should not be expected to make ourselves targets. The only thing that has had any effect is direct action. I will not endorse car burning, but it has made a lot of people and their parents think twice. If the truth be told, only large scale direct action could have saved this community, and the time for that was at least twelve years ago. Now a handful of us are left because we don't own our homes. Individuals may get moved out, but someone else is imprisoned in the same house. This must end. Get us out of here. Stop imprisoning people in this environment.

Update: share the love

Remember This?

And This?

Well now our future professionals have decided to take up house-painting. Either that or they think that we shouldn't be here. I'll let you decide. For what it's worth, they're really bad decorators. They should stick to shovelling pigshit.

Because We Care

Tick tick tick tick............I hear the van pull up beside me.
"What are you up to Alan?"
It's the short fat blonde ugly one.
"I'm getting wood out of this skip"
"Not while we're here. You see while it's in that skip it's the property of the landlord. And it remains his property until it's taken away by the skip people"
She's been reading a text book.
"What you're doing is a criminal offence. It's called "Theft by finding". If we see you doing it we'll arrest and prosecute you."
I'm staring at her in disbelief.
"Now, where are you headed to?"
She sounds like a schoolteacher.
"I guess I'll just go home"
"Good!! Off you go!!"
Hostility and smugness ooze out of her. She's not moving 'till I've gone. Her partner smiles inanely, trying to look the good cop. She knows she's won. I can't stand there all night. She'll arrest me. Clearly she has a need to humiliate.
They've timed it to perfection. It's midwinter. Snow is coming. As I write this, it's arrived. For seventeen years I've raided skips for firewood. I burn no coal, or oil, or gas. I recycle waste. My carbon footprint is minimal. In all of that time the cops have never had a problem. I was even told by them I wouldn't be prosecuted for raiding skips. What's changed? Could it be that their attempt to prosecute free speech has become a farce? If they can't get me one way, they'll get me another? Maybe it's the latest form of community relations. Maybe they'll apply the same "Theft by Finding" standard to every student or mob thereof with a traffic cone or a gate or a fence or a tree. Equality under the law?; Prosecute our future "Doctors, Lawyers, Teachers, Taxpayers"?
It's an act of exquisite cruelty. Zimbardo's experimental subjects would recognise it instantly.
I remember sitting in court behind three cops. Two were old hands. They were red-faced, having at least the decency to feel embarrassed at what they were doing. The other, a newbie, was ice cold, smug, ambitious. She'll go far.
I don't hate cops. I don't think they're all despicable...................

They Don't like it Up 'Em

"You hit our friend!!"
"Fuck you!!"
A handful of Lower Ormeau's finest, looking like the junior cast of Shameless, are taking no shit from these four burly hicks.
A bottle flies. The hicks retreat inside and emerge, each armed with a hurley bat. The locals flee, but not for long. They return with their friends. A dozen scrawny kids, aged 10-16, armed with nothing but their rage, want revenge. Our four brave lads have no fight in them. They're scared of a bunch of children. They run for cover, bolting the front door and turning out the lights.
Double glazing defeats the young one's efforts. In their anger they use the first weapons to come to hand. Empty beer bottles bounce back at them. They kick the front door in frustration. The heat of the moment takes over. No-one thinks to get a brick and put it through the front window.
Our four Hillbilly Heroes call the cops. Two landrovers and three cars, two marked and one unmarked arrive like the seventh cavalry. The locals scatter. A landrover and parked car stay to protect our future lawyers, doctors professionals etc. The other vehicles disperse. They try and fail to hunt down the kids.
It's interesting that the same people who go to rebel night at the Hatfield are the first to call the cops. It's interesting that when they laid siege to residents after BBC's Spotlight the cops stood and watched. It's interesting that they can do whatever they want round here and the cops do nothing. A resident can't even take wood from a skip without risking prosecution. But, when they call the cops for help, armoured vehicles come to their defence. Every effort's made to keep the lower orders in their place, so the wealthy can have their endless party and stomp the little people into the ground.
I admire Lower Ormeau's finest. They know they have no future, like the rest of the Lost Generation. They hate the Provos and fair play to them for that. Some years ago the local Honchos stood guard at the luxury housing complex that backs onto McClure Street. The kids were throwing rocks through the windows and making the cosy tenants most uncomfortable. In the end direct action won. The property developer had stolen their playground. Now he had to put it back. Today kids play on the slide and climbing frame. They have a couple of goalposts on the patch of grass enclosed by a steel fence and private greed.
A class war is played out in the Holyland. Designer Republicans, property developers and Institutional Power against residents and local kids. It's the New Order in microcosm.

The Case of the Disappearing Wardens

We never see them any more. I can't blame them if they sit kicking their heels in the office rather than venture out into this Hell-Hole. They've been assaulted repeatedly. What have the Universities done? Has anyone been expelled or even suspended for doing so? Maybe they got a hundred pound fine. I think we can be sure that the police have bent over backwards to avoid charging them.
Of course the cops set an example, driving by doing nothing. Why should the wardens put themselves at risk? They get paid a lot less than the cops who make a point of doing sweet fuck all.
As it happens at least two wardens have taken the logical step of joining the police. Their move from one to the other was very abrupt. They must have been police cadets by day, wardens by night.
The wardens have been no use to the community, but an excellent tool for perception management by the Universities.
"Look", they say," at the great job the wardens have done. Every thing's so much better now. It's all sorted"
Never mind that the wardens can't get them to take meaningful action against their customers, or rather "students".
As I write this the Yahoos are screaming in the street. There are no wardens to be seen. They must be tired after a long hard day at police college. Or maybe they just don't give a fuck any more. I wouldn't if I was them.

Behind Closed Doors

It took place on a Thursday. Only a select few were invited. No-one was informed. The community was kept out of the loop. It had to be done quickly, before the scheduled meeting on November the Fifth. It was necessary to present a fait accompli and pretend it had been done constitutionally.
Details are sketchy. Anne Monaghan was the "Impartial Chairperson" who was then "elected" miraculously to the post. No AGM, no EGM, it was just a tiny clique and a handful of people they've bullied into attending.
The South Belfast News described her as "appointed". They weren't wrong.
The Vampire Queen Bitch, who fed off our pain to build her career, now claims to speak for us.
It's not a dream. It's the Theatre of the Absurd.

The Wheel in the Sky

I love that song. I've always been a Journey fan. I have their early albums on vinyl. I'll have to get them on CD with extra features. The track's going round my head because of the latest story to have leaked about our Fake Residents' Group. (No, it's not how Anne Monaghan got "elected". I'll deal with that in a later post:)
Picture the scene. Katrina runs around demented.
"Eat up. Hurry up. The taxis are here. I work so hard. I'm up at seven every morning. I do so much for you people.........not a word of thanks..............."
Sandwiches are left half eaten. Pensioners are shoooed out of the room. Anne Monaghan barks orders like a Nazi.
They're off to the big wheel. It's good to know that our bogus representatives care. Whatever grant money the taxpayer has coughed up is not being wasted. What does it matter if you can't sleep at night? So what if your physical and mental health is destroyed? Go on the big wheel!! That'll make it better!! You're being intimidated? You're being told to,
"Sell your house and get the fuck out of the Holylands"?
Look how much we do for you. What, you're not grateful? You want to complain? You don't want to do that. Remember that guy that got his head bashed off the pavement? Don't bother calling the police. We're their Partners in the Community. We can do whatever we want and they'll protect us.
I can't get that song out of my head. So for all you Journey fans here it is

"Members only"

I walk straight through the door. The sight shocks even me. At the head of the table sits Anne Monaghan, Queen of the Undead. Who is that shaven headed boy sitting there? It's Katrina's brother. He speaks,
"It's members only Alan"
Behind me Tony McGuinness is rising, his face flushed. One "man" and one boy who both stood and watched someone try to kill me then gave false witness statements are telling me I have no right to be there, in a supposedly representative body. Through the other door I see cops. Katrina's pulling her Drama Queen act. Denise is talking to them. I walk through.
"Lets go"
I lead the way, a cop on either side of me. Denise turns her back on me and fiddles with a door. I stop. She keeps fiddling. I walk on.
I return to the church cafe. Residents arrive. They're not members either. They haven't paid dues for years. They're confused. When the time comes they're directed to the front of the church. The cops and the boy are manning the door, them acting as muscle, him pretending. The others are allowed in. The boy snaps at me,
"You know the rules Alan"
I phone the station. Robin McKibbin, Desk Sergeant, thinks he's fucked me rightly.
"It's a residents' meeting, not a public meeting. It's not covered by your bail conditions."
"In court it specifically mentioned residents' meetings."
"It doesn't say that here"
His officers are growing tense. The embarassment's beginning to bite. They leave the church and shout at a few drunken students in a desperate attempt to save face. They get into their car. I approach them, pointing to the phone,
"Desk Sergeant"
They ignore me and get the Fuck out of Dodge.
Before going they tell a passing resident,
"It's a private meeting"
Inside membership forms are handed out and the line is spun,
"Alan's been sent a letter"
I have. You can see it here.
I was in court today. My bail conditions have been amended.
"He be allowed to attend residents' meetings and public meetings"
I'm openly inviting the cops to the next meeting. If anyone interferes with me in any way or tries to block my entrance or have me removed I'll press charges for assault.

Our Community has been Destroyed

Another letter to the Irish News

The last letter got published. Wahayyyyyy. It took a while and it was dumbed down a bit. I wonder if this one will be published.

Our community has been destroyed

Where have all my neighbours gone? “Holylands Student” 12/11/07 claims there are 400-500 residents. Where are they? Four years ago the Extern Organisation could only find 200. Between then and now that number has surely halved.

There are many pensioners here who have lived here all their lives and refuse to go. I admire their tenacity. However, almost all of the residents I know want out. They simply can't take it any more. Neither they nor their children can sleep at night due to noise in the street and through the walls. By any reasonable definition the extreme noise and sleep deprivation we experience here must constitute torture. Yet we cannot get rehoused. Those of us who don't own our homes, but are renting from the Housing Executive or Associations are prisoners here.

We can get no redress. The wardens privately admit that they cannot get the Universities to take meaningful action against their students. The police drive around and do nothing. They will not arrest or charge students. They will not even charge someone who invades a woman's home and climbs into her child's bed! For all the tough talk from the Universities things get worse every year. Their efforts do nothing to alleviate our torment, but they act as excellent “Perception Management” tools when dealing with the media.

Their sponsorship of a “Community Regeneration Association” (A UU initiative calling on the support of Extern) has worked wonders for their image, creating the impression that things are improving. It should come as no surprise that a former “Community Relations Officer” from the University of Ulster is now their chairperson. Anne Monaghan is repeating the same mantra she used when she openly represented the Universities,

“Get more residents into the area”.

This cannot and should not happen. There are 100 residents and 6000-7000 “students”, a ratio of at least 60-1.This community has been finished for many years. It was raped by landlords using Public Money and now the Universities have got a privately owned and privately run campus which is non-stop partyland.

My neighbours are queueing up to get out. Rehouse us and imprison no more people in this lunatic asylum.

We will see.

The joys of Free Speech

Thanks to "anonymous" for drawing my attention to this

holylandwarzone

http://holylandwarzone.blogspot.com/2007/10/blow-in.html

Thanks to the wonders of blogger I can cut and paste the text so here it is:

FOR THE BENEFIT OF THOSE WHO DONT KNOW WHO ALAN MURRAY IS ...... THE GUY IS JUST A BLOW IN TO THE HOLYLAND ... NOT A LONG TERM RESIDENT. IF YOU CHECK HIS CREDENTIALS HE ORIGINATES FROM WEST BELFAST ...SOME READERS OF HIS DIATRIBE MIGHT WELL WONDER WHY HE LEFT WEST BELFAST.

OBVIOUSLY BY HIS STYLE OF WRITING HE LACKS A COMMAND OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ... HENCE HIS USE OF PROFANITIES ON A REGULAR BASIS. MR MURRAY IS NOT EVEN AWARE OF THE FACT THAT THE NAME OF THE AREA IS "THE HOLYLAND" NOT "THE HOLYLANDS" A NAME USED ONLY BY PROPERTY DEVELOPERS AND ESTATE AGENTS.

THIS SITE WILL BE USED TO DISCUSS THE BACKGROUND TO THE PRESENT CONFLICT IN THE HOLYLAND AND WILL DISCLOSE SOME OF THE FAILED ATTEMPTS TO RESOLVE IT.

UNLIKE MR MURRAY, THE AUTHOR HAS WORK COMMITMENTS BUT WATCH THIS SITE AND LEARN, MORE WILL BE ADDED SHORTLY.

I must have really got to some people. It's quite a compliment when they plagiarise your site in order to trash you. Here's the reply I posted to his article:

I've been here for seventeen years, so I think I'm a bit more than a "blow in". As for the name of the place, I use both depending on which flows better. Unlike you, others seem to enjoy my "command of the English language". I love your pomposity, it complements your anger perfectly.
They say imitation is the best form of flattery, so thank you for plagiarising my site.
Judging by your anger, you appear to be one of "The committee" that pretends to represent us. I wonder if you are one of those who have had me arrested for criticising you on my own blog. Maybe you are one of those who watched someone try to kill me then made false witness statements to the police.
It would be very funny (and hypocritical) if I had you arrested for criticising me here. I'm afraid I couldn't do it. It's just not sporting.

I don't think the police would arrest them anyway. Do you?

The Computer is Mightier than the Sword

You will recall that a year ago my computer was siezed along with my swords etc.
Four months ago the swords were returned to me. What about the computer?
"Your not getting your computer back" declares Detective Sergeant Sylvia Hamilton.
My contributions on this site seem to be a real threat, more so than lethal weapons.
They've surely tried to silence me. I've been cautioned, threatened, arrested and charged for my musings here.
In June someone tried to kill me for my criticisms of the Chairperson of a fake "Residents Group". I made my way down to Donegall Pass to report the incident. I remember sitting in a room in the station covered from head to toe with blood. Six officers surrounded me. They formally cautioned me with harrassment on this site against Katrina O'Neill, our self-appointed representative. They then told me not to press charges against my assailant.
"He has six witnesses who all say you started it and you ..........................................." I won't publish the allegation here. Suffice it to say they came up with a suitably extreme one as befits a perpetual drama queen like Katrina.
"Really?"
"They don't want to press charges."
"Why not? Would you not want to? Maybe it's because I'm the one sitting here dripping blood onto your floor"
"If you press charges you'll lose, and then she can sue you. We know it's not fair, but that's the way it is."
"Are you telling me not to press charges?"
"You'll lose"
"I'll take legal advice"

I went to internet cafes to post here. I doubt I'll be reimbursed. I then bought an old computer on ebay. They came and cautioned me again and again and again; for criticising David Farrell; then for Tony McGuinness; then for Katrina O'Neill. Then they arrested me. David Farrell would not tolerate criticism. Katrina sent them to arrest me. They seem to be providing a personal service to our Bogus Representatives. Things didn't go quite the way they planned.
"We're gonna question him and then charge him"
"You can't do that", says my solicitor. "You can't question him on the basis that you're gonna charge him anyway."
The presumption of innocence appears not to exist for these fools.
"Either question him or charge him"
She invites herself into the sergeants' office to watch her objections typed into the record.
Three sergeants have a confab.
"We're gonna charge him"
An adventure begins.

Postscript

My computer was returned after ten months. My swords were held for four. Draw your own conclusions.