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.

Justice one, Stasi nil

"We'll take a pause" says the Judge, "to see if the prosecution can get their case together."
I leave the dock and pass through the vestibule where my barrister, the cops and the prosecution service are talking. This is undoubtedly the worst prepared case the authorities have ever put forward.
A journalist has followed me out,
"What the fuck's going on? They're prosecuting you for the content of a website?"
I hand him a flier for this blog as my solicitor and barrister come out and join me. He leaves us to it.
"This is descending into farce " I say.
Their agreement is both eloquent and profane.

I return to the dock. Stevie Kingsman's in the witness box. He has some printouts from the site in front of him.
"Your worship", my barrister begins, "we would like to change my client's bail conditions. They're an infringement on his freedom of speech"
She looks at Kingsman,
"Well?"
"We're prosecuting him for the content of his blog"
She turns to my barrister,
"What do you say?"
"He should be allowed to write whatever he wants.If the complainant wants to take out an injunction, that's a civil matter"
"Constable Kingsman?"
"The complainant feels intimidated and harrassed about the content of this blog."
"Can you point to any specific statements?"
"I'm afraid the complainant would have to be here to discuss that herself"
"We're talking about criticism of a resident's group", my barrister cuts in, "What we have here is a very sinister, a very Orwellian situation where people are prosecuted for free speech."
"OK", she says, "he's not allowed to write anything insulting or intimidating about her."
"Insulting your Worship? If I want to write an article about a football manager and I say disparaging things about him should I be prosecuted?"
"OK", nothing intimidating"
"But that's illegal. He's not allowed to do that anyway."
"Nonetheless, we often stipulate illegal acts as bail conditions"
"OK, now this business about not having direct or indirect contact with her. Is he not allowed to attend Residents' meetings?"
"He can attend, but have no contact with her"
"What if she's on a panel your worship? And he wishes to attend Police Liason Committee meetings."
"OK, he can have no contact with her other than through the medium of public meetings."
"This business about Agincourt Street Your Worship; he should be allowed to walk anywhere he wants"
She looks at Stevie Kingsman, he's very uncomfortable.
"Well, ah, there was an incident in Agincourt Street Your Worship"
He means the attempt on my life. He's trying to incriminate me. She cuts him off.
"In terms of this case Constable?"
He fumbles, struggling for words.
"Your Worship", my barrister intercedes.
"OK. He's barred from her property"

City Church have been informed of the new bail conditions. They have big questions to ask themselves. Should they side with a fake residents' group against the community? What moral right do they have to impose their prejudices on other people's pain? Does someone have to die before they reset their moral compass? I, for one, live in fear for my life. It's decision time. They can't pretend to have acted impartially. If they beleive they have, this should help them think.
"To remain neutral in the face of injustice is to side with the oppressor."
The words of Archbishop and Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu

Where have all the hardworking students gone?

I emailed this to the editor of the Irish News today. Do you think he'll print it?

Where have all the hardworking students gone?

They had no classes this week, but they were still up in the Holylands. What for? To study? If so they must be able to drink and study at the same time. Ah, the resilience of youth!! A simpler explanation is that they were not studying, but drinking non-stop. Ah, the resilience of youth!!

The Irish news recently published a letter by a “Holyland Resident” speaking up for the

“Poor students in their cramped hovels, struggling to work and study and make ends meet. No cosy Housing Executive or Housing Association homes for them!!”

The reply to that is a simple statistic; 50% of Queens undergraduates don't go to class. The streets are crammed out with new cars bought by wealthy parents for pampered offspring. What a waste of taxpayers' money! You, the public, are paying for these people to come up here and abuse education. Working class people are turned away from Queens. Their places are taken by these fools.

Over Halloween the streets were filled with drunks. The Police stood around, their eyes wide, their impotence made clear by feeble attempts to corral the “students” back into their comfy houses, refurbished by you, the taxpayer, to the tune of £24,000 to £36,000 per property.

One of us (Joanne) experienced the kindness and good character of our future "Doctors, politicians, accountants and taxpayers" in the form of projectiles through her front window and abusive grafitti daubed on her yard door. On one occasion a "student" pushed past her after entering her home and climbed into her child's bed. The police, predictably, are not pursuing charges.

We've had a week of mayhem culminating in an endless night of drunken chaos.

Where have all the hardworking students gone? They're not to be found in the Holylands.

Holyland Residents

"Sure it's only one day"

In the wake of the Halloween Debacle the cops said to one resident,
"Sure it's only one day"
Well, no it's not. It's the entire duration of the Academic year. Yes , some days, or for that matter weeks are more unbearable than others, but we arecdeprived of peace the whole time that these people are here.
As if to make the point, the other night, only one day after Halloween, the middle of Carmel St was barricaded with furniture, bins and rubbish. About 50 "students" were in attendance with no fear, no cops, no wardens, just mob rule.
If you ask the cops could they live with this, they have no answer. We no longer expect them to protect us.After all, they treat us as if we're the problem.
"If only those whining residents would shut the fuck up, or at least stop fighting back. All our overwelming force and they still do damage. We can't get evidence. We can't construct a case except to prosecute that guy with the website, the one that calls us the keystone cops.

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.

Exonerated

For the background to this see Raided

The Stasi Wear Kid Gloves These Days

"Yes officer, what can I do for you now?"
This one was a detective. He was Amused. I guess they'd told him hammering the front door half off it's hinges wasn't going to phase me.
"We've had a complaint about harrassment. David Farrell want's you to stop writing about him on your website and take everything you have written about him on it off"
"Well officer, David Farrell's free to complain about my criticisms of him and you're free to arrest me"
"Hopefully not for harrassment"
They really don't like me. They apparently consider me a very serious criminal. Time to put them in their place.
"The harrassment laws have been introduced to silence dissent. The journalist George Monbiot has written about an electricity company in England that, because it is a person in the eyes of the law has taken harrassment proceedings against local protesters who don't want toxic ash dumped in their lake. If they come within so many feet of an employee they go to jail. If an employee approaches them, they have to step back, whether it's into the path of of an oncoming bus seems not to matter"
He almost laughed at that one.
Now it's time for the meat.
"Someone tried to kill me recently for exercising freedom of speech. Do you really think I'm afraid of going to jail for it?"
This is news to him. The lid's been clamped on tight. They take their cover ups seriously.
"When did Farrell call you about this?"
"This evening"
"And you came out right away?"
"It's a serious offence"
"Free speech?"
No answer.
He gives me his card. He and three uniforms depart.

Comments

I've finally done it. It took a lot of persuasion, but I've agreed to allow comments on this blog. Because I do not have home internet access trolls may feel free to run rampant, but beware, I'll be watching and you will be deleted. So bring it on, the good, the bad, the ugly. Let a thousand flowers bloom. Well, maybe that's not the best quote. Mao used his "Democracy Wall" to flush out the dissidents so he could crush them, and I know how it feels to be on the business end of that treatment. So do your worst trolls. After all, vitriolic abuse is not the same thing as having your head bashed off the pavement.

The Latest Outrage

First they threw bottles through her window, leaving her baby to crawl through broken glass.
Then they stole her garden bench.
Then they stole her pram from outside her front door.
Now the latest outrage.
A student walked into her house, forcing his way past her. He walked up the stairs and climbed into her childs bed.
She screamed at him.
He ignored her.
She dialled 999 then hammered on the window until a neighbour came.
He ignored both of them.
The police arrived.
He calmly walked down the stairs.
"Apologise to her!!" The police weren't taking the piss.
He smirked at them.
He wasn't drunk, he wasn't off his head. He knew what he was doing. He had not gone into that house by mistake. He gave the cops a false address.
When they drove him home to tuck him into bed they discovered 11 Palestine St was bricked up.He got out of the four wheel drive and ran. Now they had to arrest him.
Of course they'll make the whole affair go away. They have made no arrangements to take her written statement, essential if charges are going to be pressed. When she phoned them their response was,
"Nine times out of ten this thing won't happen again"
They're brushing it under the carpet.
Her nerves are shattered. She wants out, but knows a hostel will be worse. She's applied for emergency accommodation, but may not get it. What's happening to us is not classified as intimidation, so we've no hope of getting housing priority. We're lucky if we get any housing points at all.

The "speak truth to power" moment

"I'm tired of hearing this nonsense that police treat residents different to students"
"It's not nonsense, it's my experience."
"It's nonsense"
Lewis Brown thought he could bitch-slap me.
A voice pipes up,
"Who here agrees with Alan?"
Half the hands in the room go up.
"There you are, Lewis. We must all be talking nonsense. Don't ever patronise me again!!"
Now he gets bitch slapped
Inspector lewis Brown and some of his pals from Donegall Pass PSNI had come to a residents' meeting. The community had turned out in force. The anger in the room was palpable. Every speaker bar one voiced furious contempt for the police.
I was having a field day,
"Ever since Robert Peel, who at least was explicit about it, you people have existed to protect property privelege and power, and to keep the little people in their place. Well you're certainly good at keeping the little people in their place and making sure students can do whatever they want. They're above the law. Eveyone in this room knows that nobody will be prosecuted for the sexual assauly that took place in Palestine street. Your people refused to arrest the ones that assaulted David Farrell. You have declared every one of us to be fair game for students. They know that they can do whatever they want to us and you'll make sure nothing happens to them"
The hammering went on for an hour and a half. Almost everyone in the room gave them hell.
Gordon Douglas, the man from Queens, made some noise about student's exams being delayed as punishment. I wasn't having it,
"Gordon, I have had exams delayed. I have had academic year after year written off because I have to live among your students. This year has been written off because I suffered intimidation at the hands of a builder, something that your officers, Lewis, refused to investigate properly!!"
I was eyeballing Lewis. We were three feet apart. He was terrified.
Thus it came to pass, the speak truth to power moment. The bottom line, as Chomsky says, Is that power already knows the truth. It just doesn't care.

Public Accountability

"So what if I didn't write the article?!!"
Katrina was shouting. She'd wanted a row all night and now, finally, I was fool enough to give her it.
"If you've got anything to say about me come to my front door. Don't put it on the internet!!"
"OK, I'll say it now Katrina. Did you write the article in the South Belfast News?"
"You should be ashamed of yourself!!"
"Did you write the article?"
"So what if I didn't write it?!!"
And so it went on.It was an ignominious end to a resdents' meeting that had seen the community tear the cops to pieces (metaphorically), with one dissenting voice. Katrina, the esteemed chairperson of the Belfast Holylands Regeneration Association, thanked the police for the wonderful service they had provided for her. I commented that she was very priveleged indeed, a fact that was not unrelated to her position.
Katrina, it appears, wants all of the benefits of being a public figure: her face in the papers and on the TV, meetings with Lord This and Baron That (like they care) and the privelege of being the only resident in the Holyland the police actually protect. Well, being a public figure means that you are publically accountable. anyone can write about you on the internet and in the press, or talk about you on the TV or radio. That's the price you pay. That's why Mr. T. hides behind a woman, putting her name and not his on the disgusting article he wrote in the South Belfast News.
It's not acceptable to claim that you represent a community and yet tell them to their faces that you don't care if they boycott your meetings. You have declared your refusal to be accountable and, in the process, lost all legitimacy.
Naturally I'll be saying this to your face at the next residents' meeting.

"We don't want to arrest him"

The girls in 12 Carmel St certainly know how to cause trouble. So much so, in fact, that the words,
"Sluts. Whores live here"
were painted on their wall some months ago.
Now I don't care what they get up to in the privacy of their own bedrooms, but when they take it into the street it's a different matter.
Paddy was going out with one of the girls. Evidently they had fallen out because he wasn't invited to the birthday party in no 12.
Being an aggressive sort of hillbilly, he tries to kick the front door in. When that fails he tries to drag his (presumably ex) girlfriend out the front window. In the tug of war that ensues, the girls manage to pull her back in. He slams the window on her hands. I can see why she dumped him. They call the police.
One by one four cop cars arrive. They try to reason with Paddy who is too busy screaming at the house.
"I know he's in there. I know you're screwin' him. He's the one with the big hard cock!!"
Paddy appears to have some issues wih his sexuality.
By now a row has developed in the street between the girls in No12, their friends from down the street, Paddy's friends and Paddy. This continues for an hour, from 1.30 to 2.30. Four carloads of police do nothing to quiet it down.
The girls are handing out cups of tea to the cops. Evidently the same bimbos that regularly play cheesy republican music for the retarded are unfamiliar with the phrase,
"No More Tea"
Ciaran, the enormous cop with the shaven head, is most popular with them.
"Ciaran, you must play GAA do you? You'd make a great player."
Paddy wants the police to give him a lift home to the wilds of county Antrim. He seems to think they're a taxi service.
Now his mother's on the phone.He hands it to the cops.
"He's causing bother, but we dson't want to arrest him."
They reassure his dear old mother that they'll do their very best for him then walk him to the bottom of the street.
Five minutes later he's back. The cops return. Finally they arrest him.
The landlord of the property, Steven Magill, has shown no apparent interest in his tenants or the mayhem they've caused over the last year.

A Short Note on the Banality of Evil

I read Katrina's article in the South Belfast News recently. I call It Katrina's article, but it's obvious she didn't write it.
"We are pleased that the draft HMO subject plan now rejects PPS1, acknowledges the importance of HMO issues as material planning considerations, and affirms that the subject plan complies with equality legislation"
She certainly didn't write that. It reads like a Housing Executive discussion document.
The true author of it is, I beleive, a shadowy figure who shuns accountabiity like a vampire hiding from the sun. For the sake of brevity and to protect his identity I'll call him "Mr T" and he is in his own way a truly banal individual who does truly evil things. Of course I'm not comparing hin to Hannah Arendt's description of Adolf Eichmann, the dull bureaucrat who sent millions to their deaths in Auschwicz. Well, OK, I am, but only in the sense that Eichmann represents a ubiquitous type. Such people are driven by their own need for importance and delusions of relevance. Ultimately their compulsion becomes a self- fulfilling prophecy.They become relevant and significant as a result of the harm they do unto others.
Let's examine what "Mr. T" has to say for himself.
"In the Holyland around 300 properties, capable of housing families, are lying empty. This number is sufficient to house 40 percent of the social housing waiting list in south Belfast........ if community audits are carried out in other areas they will find that there is sufficient vacant stock in South Belfast to resolve waiting lists without the need to build new houses at enormous cost to the public purse."
Well, that's some bucket of words, none of them Katrina's. So let me decipher it for you. "Mr.T", clearly a man on the inside track, has jumped on the policy bandwagon that says,
"Privatise all Public Housing. Force people to rent from private landlords."
Across the UK Council housing is being liquidated by any means neccessary. The new housing policy is "Cathy Come Home": slum housing, enormous rents (not fully covered by housing benefit), no rights, no security of tenure, eviction on a whim, homelessness.
Never let it be said that banal people don't do evil things.
There is, however, more. He wants to imprison 300 families in the Holylands. He wants to make them live in this lunatic asylum. Now, for the record, there are no 300 empty properties in the Holylands. Almost every landlord property is tenanted with students despite market saturation of HMOs.
Sartre was right. In the end we can only be judged by our actions. And,
"Evil exists"

"Things have changed"

"What do you want now?!!"
"What.....??"
He was taken aback
"We have a report from a local landlord that you walked out and stood in front of his van"
"I don't know what you're talking about"
"Your behaviour is bordering on harrasment. If we have to come back we'll arrest you."
"You're gonna arrest me are you? But you refused to arrest the ones who beat up David Farrell?!!"
A student and his "friend" had beaten up David Farrell, a defensless drunken fool, and prominent resident.I watched the cops caution those that did it and let them go without arresting them.
"When I stood up to your people and objected they were gonna arrest me"
I wish they had arrested me, but a friend and witness to the assault talked me down from the confrontation. The cops refused to question either of two witnesses, both of whom had to approach them and offer to give a statement. It was a week before they got back to one of them.
"We also have a report that you approached the estate agent and prospective buyer of a house in Palestine Street"
"What am I supposed to have said?"
"You told them a girl was raped in that house"
"A girl was raped in that house"
"It's not your place to approach them"
"It's not my place to tell the truth?! If I'm gonna buy a house I want to know if someone was raped in it. If you're gonna buy a house do you not want to know if someone was raped in it?"
He has no answer. Now I know it was Declan Boyle who complained.
"And when it comes to arresting people, I spoke to a former member of the RUC and he told me that he has never heard of two people assaulting someone and not being arrested."
"Things have changed"
"Yeah, these people can do whatever they want to us an we're nothing but scum to you."
They're getting into their van.
"If you don't like it you can always complain"
"We all know it'll make no difference"

"Sell your home and get the fuck out of the Holylands"

There were four of them, waiting in the entry, what for we'll never know. She didn't see them. It was pitch black.
"What the fuck are you doing out here at this time?!!"
They surprised her. She felt threatened, but would take no shit.
"I'll dump my rubbish any time I want!!"
"You're one of them fuckin' residents aren't you?"
"Yeah. So what?"
"This is our area now. Sell your house and get the fuck out of the Holylands!!"

If you're wondering who these people are, they're your future doctors, lawyers, teachers. Do you really want them teaching your kids?

"Indecent Exposure"

Picture the scene. You call the cops.
"There's a naked student running down the street."
"I'm sorry, we can't make out what you're saying."
You hang up. Phone again. Different cop.
"What does he look like?"
"Naked"
Eventually two of them come out. The exhibitionist is long gone. It's not hard to work out why they took their time.

It is of course absurd that public nudity is treated as indecent exposure and can get you a lifetime on the sex offenders' register. However, if a working class person ran naked through the street, the cops would destroy their life. If the law is an ass, it's burden should fall equally on the rich and the poor. Well, that's what they say anyway.

Another Family Flees

They told no-one. One day the removal van just came. They couldn't take any more. Nobody knows where they have gone. People do that here, just disappear. Maybe they're renting from some scumbag private landlord. Maybe they're renting from one of those who have raped this community. Thus the landlords create greater demand for their own disgusting trade.
A friend of mine remembers when Declan Boyle's brother ( and business partner) put her and her children out of their home so he could cram students in. Welcolme to homelessness. Say hello to the world of " Cathy Come Home", our government's housing policy. Say goodbye to public housing. It's going going gone. The new Rachmans have taken over. This area was redlined at least 15 years ago and tens of millions taken from the housing budget (It's gone now. No more executive new builds.) and poured into landlords' pockets. Kiss your community goodbye. It's a UK phenomenon, but in the Holylands we get our faces rubbed in it.

"Criminal Damage"

"People are learning to hate you cunts all over again.!!"
I was screaming. It felt good. I could tell they wanted to arrest me. Itchy fingers were reaching for the CS spray.
"You treat us like dogshit, while you let these cunts do whatever they want!"
My friend calmly tells then that it's true. She politely disagrees with their rehearsed answers about dealing with the situation as they find it. If a resident calls for assistance they may never come out, but if a student complains about a resident six police cars arrive and his door's nearly kicked in.
The reason? "Criminal Damage". Tell the cops that a resident's committed criminal damage and they'll swoop like something out of a Hollywood movie. One marked and five unmarked cars were floating round the Holyland watching the community, waiting to pounce on my neighbours.
They've declared war on us. They're an army of occupation. They drive on by while "students" commit untold criminal damage, including plenty of arson, and inflict catastrophic noise, then turn to me and tell me to,
"Keep the noise down"
Is it any wonder I exploded?
If you're wondering why they didn't arrest me, it's because I had a witness. Without her I'd have got the CS spray in the face and a baton over the head. You can be sure no "Student" will ever have that experience.

The keystone cops have got machine guns now

Why were they there? Five landrovers, a twenty man Tactical Support Unit of riot squad, every police car and van from Donegall Pass station flooded the Holylands. Another resident and I followed them as they chased a teenager into the Lower Ormeau and cornered him with machine guns. Was he a Republican Dissident? Not likely, not at his age. Was he an armed robber? he looked too terrified to be a hardened criminal.
The Tactical Support Units roamed through the Holylands with their machine guns searching gardens and entries. It was like the troubles, but without the danger. These fools weren't even wearing body armour. The search lasted from midnight till 1.30 am. A police car pulled up and told a TSU,
" We got one of them"
At the police meeting we were told that two deeply anti-social individuals were scooped and a great service had been done to the public. I commented that I would love to see a twenty man TSU in the Holylands five nights a week.
"Of course", I said,"it would help if they enforced the law.
Sargeant Bell's tired of hearing this.
"You've raised this before and Lewis Brown's told you..." Blah blah blah blah blah.
Later I discovered the truth. A fifteen year old girl had broken bail conditions and run away from the local home with her boyfriend.
A sledge hammer is used to crack a nut when it's working class people. If you've got property or privelege or power you can do whatever you want. You're above the law.

Open letter to Inspector Lewis Brown, commander Donegall Pass Police Station

Dear Inspector Brown,
by the time you read this you should have received a copy of the receipts from the internet cafe I have been using to post on this blog. It is my belief that the Police are holding my computer to silence me. As you can see, that has failed. Your people siezed my computer four months ago. They cannot pretend they are still holding it as part of an investigation. Indeed, the attitude of Detective Sargeant Sylvia Hamilton was to state bluntly,
"No. You're not getting your computer back."
Well, Inspector Brown, if I'm not getting my computer back, I expect to be reimbursed for my internet cafe expenses.
It is possible to copy the contents of my hard drive if a permanent record is needed.
For what it's worth, I have nothing to hide or apologise for.
I expect to hear from you sooner rather than later.

Yours faithfully,
Alan Murray.

Police target residents

You will recall, way back when, before the police siezed my computer, I said we are a lesser class of person to them. Everybody sees the looks of suspicion and loathing they give us as they drive around like an army of occupation. Residents are stopped in the street,
"Who are you? Where are you going?"
Me, at least, they know by name. It's odd that they don't stop students willy-nilly. Well, OK, it's not odd, it's policy. Criminalise the community. What they don't realise is that this is a tacit admission of failure. The entire community is in revolt, apart from a few collaborators. Now their energy's directed at containing our rage while the "Students" can do what they want. That, beleive me, is policy.
If students vandalise a resident's car, the resident is threatened with prosecution. If a resident is relating to police how he was attacked by three students, the police pull his son and, when he objects, is threatened by an enraged officer brandishing CS spray and a baton. Naturally nothing will be done about the "student" attackers, other than going through the motions.
For the record, we are all free to walk down any street or up any entry and we don't have to explain ourselves to anyone.

Charlatan claims to represent community

David Farrell's at it again. He's telling the press that he's the "Chairman" of the, "Belfast Holylands Regeneration Association". At least he's not calling it a resident's group.
He's written to the Police, wardens and universities to tell them what a good job they did making st Patricks day quiet. Does he expect us to beleive that they are responsible for it falling on a weekend, coinciding with mothers day and being washed out by a three day Atlantic storm?
There was a large police presence, but, as I'll explain in a later post, it focused almost entirely on residents, barring the collaborators of course.
An end must be put to this fake residents/regeneration/collaboration group.It's boycotted by residents who are almost universally disgusted with it.

Raided

They came at 7.45am. I'd had little sleep. It was timed for maximum disorientation.
"Mister Murray Hurry Up"
I'm rushing to the door.
"We have a warrant to search the place.You can stay, but if you interfere you'll be removed. Do you understand?"
"OK"
The uniforms go about their work and the first plain clothes introduces herself.
"I'm Sylvia"
She sounds like a social worker.
Her partner, Alan, chimes in.
"This situation's got out of control. It's got to stop."
I'm feeling patronised.
"We'll look after you" Says Sylvia, "We're your guardian angels."
Alarm bells are going off in my head.
I look around to see my computer being taken out the front door.
I go into the kitchen. Every tin of yellow paint is being opened.
"What are you looking for?"
A uniform shows me the warrant.
" Orange/yellow paint, brake fluid boots."
I'm not thinking straight because they're siezing a lot more than that.
"We're taking your swords", says Alan,"until this is all over.
They're taking my antique swords. Even the wooden training swords I made myself are going.
"Leave me the baseball bat"
"No, it's going too."
"How am I supposed to defend myself?"
"If your house is attacked just call us
"You won't get here in time"
"Yes we will"
They're taking the piss. I'd be dead before I got through to the station.
Alan's prattling again.
"If this doesn't stop someone's going to get killed here"
They don't know the half of it
"You know why we're here. These bin fires have got to stop."
"You think I'm in the frame"
"The dogs in the street know you did it. You're out of control. people are afraid of you."
He's pouring it on like hot butter.
Sylvia approaches me.
"We're arresting you on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life. You do not have to say anything, but anything you do not say, but reveal later can be held against you in a court of law."
"Can I take my medication?"
"We'll take it with us Our Doctor can administer it."
I put my tablets into a bag.
We're about to go. I need to get dressed.
"Where are my boots?"
"They've been siezed"
I put on my trainers.
"We have to put cuffs on you"
" Front or back?"
"Back"
They're uncomfortable. They make it difficult to squeeze into the Police car, and I have to sit forward in the seat as we drive to the station.

The Holding cell has piss on the floor.I shake with cold and fear while I munch on a mars bar.
After a while they take me for processing. They take my wallet, my gloves , my hat, my belt. They let me keep the bounty bar.
As the sargeant's taking my details my bowels are about to burst.
"I can't hold it sarge!!"
"OK just run"
I make it barely in time and squat above a stainless bowl pulling my cheeks apart while the world falls ouy of my backside. It's the first of many visits to the "customers" toilet.
I sit in a cell with my shoes outside.
"In case you hang yourself with the laces"
Well whatever.
I wait. And wait. And wait.
The door opens.
"Your solicitor's on the phone"
My solicitor, Julie has known me for seventeen years. She tells me to eat something. Lunch is on its way soon and she'll be there not long after.
In between lunch and frequent visits to the toilet I try to relax.Hours have passed. I was raided before 8am. It's now 2pm.
My solicitor arrives. Alan, or Detective Sargeant Piper to his friends, takes her aside for a chat about my mental health. I think he's trying to convince her I'm crazy. She's no dozer. He'll make fools of neither of us.
I tell Julie I know nothing about the fires in No2 Jerusalem St, and, with me being innocent the Police have no forensic evidence.
At 3pm the interviews begin. We will not finish till 8pm.
"What did you do that day?"
"I got up, I can't remember when. It was late. Afternoon sometime. I went into town. I got food. I came home.I said hello to the workmen at the front door of No2. I went inside. I went out the back and saw them dumping a huge pile of rubbish in the entry. I made my tea later on. I went for a walk late. I noticed that the windows of No2 were broken. I came back. I watched more TV. I had a bath and played music I went to bed."
"Did you hear any noise?"
"Its the Holyland there's always noise."
" Did you hear the fire brigade?"
"I was in the bath . I heard diesel engines. I thought it was the fire brigade coming to put out a eurobin."
"A what?", says Alan, feigning stupidity.
"Those big steel bins. They get burnt all the time."
"You didn't hear anything else?"
"I was playing loud music."
It's time to go over the evidence collected.
"What's this large tube of glue for?"
"It's general purpose, but it's perfect for round the bath. You've seen the sealant. It needs replaced."
"You haven't used it to seal up locks?"
"No"
"What about this superglue?"
"I have a house full of model kits. It's ideal for them. It's better than polystyrene cement. You've seen the large model tank stored in a biscuit tin I've been working on."
Neil, the evidence guy nods.
Now it's the yellow paint.
"That cream colour's for the living room floor. The others I found in skips or the entry. That large empty tub, turn it upside down.You see the coloured paint? I mount figures on it while I'm painting them."
"You haven't used these to paint X's on people's windows?"
"No"
"We'll be doing forensics on these. Will they match?"
"Well, paints can be very generic, but it's most unlikely."
" Can you tell us what this large stencil says?"Neill's feeling pompous.
"RICH SCUM GO HOME"
"What does that mean?"
" Well, let's see. I'm surrounded by people who've come up here for a three year long party, all the while abusing education. Look at my course. It's one of the best in the UK. It has a 50% non-attendance rate. These people come up here, go apeshit and you people do nothing about it. You just drive on by and legitimise their behaviour."
"What would you have us do?"
"I've spent all day in a cell called a "Drunk cell". There's an offence called "Drunk and Disorderly". Park a meat wagon in the Holylands, fill it up and process these people at the end of the night. They come up here, torment working class people and drive around in brand new cars that mummy and daddy bought them. And no, I didn't paintstripper their cars!!!"
Julie cuts in.
"I think we should take a break here. You're getting Quite upset."
"Thank's Julie. You're right. I just don't think I have anything to apologise for."
We take a break. Dinner arrives.It's suitably tasteless. The ordinary officers in the station are, I have to say, very decent to me.It must be refreshing for them to have a polite customer. Events in the interview room are of course most unpleasant. The whole business of being raided, arrested and grilled is increadibly threatening. The sense of ontological terror is overwelming.
While I eat chips my solicitor tells me the cops are on a fishing expedition. They have nothing. I know they're trying to pin all the resistance activity on me, as if a whole community isn't in revolt.
We have many breaks during the interviews. They're going on for hours. The cops are trying to trip me up or break me. I'm an innocent man. But they have to try don't they. My innocence or guilt is irrelevant. They need to make an example of someone.
More interviews. They've siezed the handbills I've been circulating with the address and phone number of Douglas Bailie, the landlord of No2 Jerusalen St on them. Later they'll caution me with harrassment for circulating his details and instruct me to take them off this website. They don't want me putting a list of his other properties in the area on here either or, for that matter, Declan Boyle's details. They seek to protect power from accountability.
"What can you tell us about these boots?"
"They're boots. they keep my feet dry in the rain and warm in the winter."
"We won't find any evidence on them?"
"I walked through the glass outside that house. I,ve done that with these trainers as well."
"Well, we'll have to confiscate them too"
They give me a pair of oversize plimsoles. Neill, feeling clever, says I look like Krusty the Clown. Beleive it or not, that wee boy has a psychology degree.
I'm finally released. Julie gives me a lift home. It's just as well. I'd have had to trudge through the rain in Krusty the Clown Plimsoles on a wet November night.
The next day I see the article in the South Belfast News. The fake residents group have been stitching up their neighbours. Go figure.

Postscript.
This happened in November. It's now the end of march and the cops still have my computer. They needn't pretend they're holding it as part of an investigation. They're trying to
silence me.

I went back twice to be reinterviewed. They had nothing to put to me. The second time Neill, the Krusty the Clown guy, told me they'd be holding my computer. I said why don't you copy the hard drive and return it to me. He answers with some words of wisdom.
"You can buy a new hard drive for a couple of hundred quid."
"A...couple ..of hundred..quid..?"
The couple next to me are sniggering
"Well, Neill why don't you lend me a couple of hundred quid?"
"No" His smile's slipping away.
"I didn't think so."
"Well I'm not burning down houses in the Holyland"
Calmly I say " Neither am I"
His smile's gone now.
"Am I free to go?"
"Yes you're free to go"
We part company. Now I'm Smiling.