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
56 comments:
Not to speak ill of the dead here but there are allegations that Arbuckle was a death driver, that he was a prolific criminal living in the Holylands because he had been put out of other parts of Belfast, that he had been kneecapped for housebraking and hooliganism, that he had previously nearly beaten to death a policeman and that his death was owing to a Heroin overdose....
For legal reasons I say again that these are allegations, and that it is alleged that he was invovled in these things...the only people to prove or disprove these claims would be the authorities...who obviously will not comment in this context.
I might add that these are only a selection of the more credible accounts that I have heard: there are lots more that I would not repeat as I cannot confirm the providence of the claims.
My point is this...if any of the allegations are true, and serious allegations they are, then it would only have been a matter of time until such an individual contributed directly or indirectly to the death of another.
What is not disputed by most who knew the man was that he was, in many opinions, a dangerous man who was capable of alot.
Should we mourn the passing of such an individual?
He was also a father, a finance and a friend to many including your precious students.
An off duty cop started a fight with Arbuckle, thinking that because he had specialist combat training he could take him. Bad move; Arbuckle refused to roll over and instead fought back hard, giving the cop a dose of his own medicine and then some.
Arbuckle did not use heroin. He may have abused his body with alcohol, tobacco and tranquilizers. The "Heroin Overdose" theory is new to me and makes no intuitive sense. He had had a heart attack a week
previously and was seriously scared. I spoke to him the night before he died and he was still shocked by the near-miss he'd had. He was unlikely to have been using any drugs due to sheer fear. This appears to be yet another scurrilous rumour put about to sully his name and that of all residents.
The "ticking bomb" theory that he was a murderous thug about to explode does not stand up to scrutiny. Those who knew him well considered him to be mischievous rather than dangerous. He was certainly never boring, and would never back down from a fight, but I never feared him and nor did those who attended his funeral.
"Should we mourn the passing of such an individual?"
Pissing on the grief of his loved ones can now be added to the list of posthumous abuse doled out to him.
It is no secret that he had a record and had been kneecapped. However there was much more to him than a one dimensional caricature. He was loved by many people for many reasons and I'll take their opinion over yours any day.
Also he was not a "death driver".
Arbuckle was [...allegedly... for legal reasons...] actually amongst a group of 3 or 4 people who allegedly set about that cop outside milk nightclub in town. They allegedly attacked him, by surprize, then proceeded to kick him until he was unconscious. Then they kicked him some more. And then some more.
But then again...he won't be doing anything like that again will he
all i say is good riddance to bad rubbish!
family man or not this man shouldn't have done the things he did and in my opinion took the easy option out, why couldn't he face up to all the crime he committed? and if he didn't commit all these crimes then he shouldn't have had anything to worry about come court day!!!!!!!!
and also above you talk about wasting police money well dat couldn't b more relevant than when you's lot call to complain about student over the stupidest little thing, were ya's never young r is it just because ya's r jealious that we're gettin the opportunities in life that u's did??
I see that Mid-Ulster's finest can't even write proper sentences or, for that matter, spell. This does not surprise me because they can barely fucking talk. Their attempts at verbal communication mostly consist of abuse shouted at one another, usually at 3am. Here we have living, babbling proof of intellectual meltdown. Our brightest and best are queuing up to get out of here rather than go to institutions that let these inbred cunts through the front door.
The suggestion that he committed suicide is both absurd and offensive. He had everything to live for; a fiancee, two kids, a new house in Lower Ormeau (he too was escaping) and many friends who loved him deeply. The contributions on his memorial site speak volumes.
Whatever his failings, he was one of us and he did fight back. He earned considerable respect for doing so.
The behaviour of the cops in the Holyland is disgusting and disgraceful. They endorse a reign of terror imposed by their "Partners", who are above the law. Arbuckle was one who would not be cowed by collaborator criminal scum. He will be missed.
Just out of curiosity, what area have you relocated to? Is it a better area than the Holylands?
I've moved to the Cricket Ground in Lower Ormeau. At night there is total silence, not a peep. I get to sleep. It's wonderful. Looking back it's amazing that I survived the Holyland. It took all of my energy just to cope. One thing is certain; you can't study in the Holyland, and "students" do not go there in order to do so. It is nakedly and undeniably Partyland. No-one can pretend otherwise.
"Get out before we make you get out. HOlylands for students."
I would like to thank whoever wrote that for their honesty. Also, their semi-illiteracy shows once again the debasement of academia and our intellectual meltdown. Is it any wonder our best minds are getting the fuck out of Dodge?
So are you sleeping rough now on the cricket grounds? Saw you walking around the holylands just last week so when exactly did you move out? In relation to arbuckle this man was a career criminal and was only living in the holylands due to the lack of residents as he was put out off other areas. How do you excuse his conviction for armed robbery? I suppose you will be telling us he was a robin hood character who stole from the rich and gave to the poor!
No, Dummy!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have a house with Clanmill Housing Association. I swapped with a guy who didn't like the area. He's been repeatedly told what the Holylands is like, but fell in love with my old house. I don't blame him; it's the only house I've ever felt was Home and I miss it profoundly. However the Holylands was killing me. First the stress of it gave me pneumonia, then I was beaten almost to death for exposing certain people as frauds (see the article previous to this). Being told about a thing and actually living it are different things. I don't know how he'll cope. Doing so took all my energy.
I don't excuse Arbuckle's past.He would not want that. He was one of us and he, and by extension all residents, has been posthumously sullied by Queen's Union Paper. I cannot believe that this happened without the sanction of the University. Why else have they gone into lockdown mode?
Arbuckle was dangerous criminal ( which you can not disagree with) who should not have been aloud into south belfast in the first place.
i do feel sorry for his family but at the same time i now feel alot safer sleeping at nite knowing that this man is no longer on our streets cause conflict!
"who should not have been aloud into south belfast in the first place."
"i now feel alot safer sleeping at nite knowing that this man is no longer on our streets cause conflict!"
First of all learn to spell. Then learn to write a grammatical sentence. I assume you are a "student" so no surprises there.
What makes South Belfast so special that no-one with a record should be allowed to live here? Is it because it's full of comfy rich cunts? After all they're allowed to engage in all manner of criminal activity in the Holyland and get away with it. The cops make sure of that. They zoom in on residents who have been reduced to the status of non-people, with the exception, of course of their "partners" who keep the remnants of a community in line through fear and instrumental violence.
so would you prefer the holy lands to be full of rapists murders and other sorts of criminal, fair enough students aren't the best sort of neighbours to have but thet certainly are not the worst!!
"will you shut the fuck up about spelling? its completely beside the point who gives a shit if something spells words wrong"
You should put that in one of your essays, or maybe an email to to your advisor of studies or department head. You couldn't make this shit up.
"stop dividing into student cunts and resident heroes"
I just tell it like it is. I cannot endorse violent direct action, but no law in this land says I have to condemn it.
"so would you prefer the holy lands to be full of rapists murders and other sorts of criminal"
The probation service anonymously houses sex offenders in the Holyland/Botanic area. We would like to know where they live or even how many of them there are. The cops will not tell us. Like "students" they are not part of the community. A major local landlord, whom I cannot name, has a contract with the probation board to house these people together in Houses of Multiple Occupancy. They are then in a position th exchange stories and tips about how to commit their crimes and evade justice. The landlord in question has allegedly commented that,.
"There's good money in them Paedos".
It's worth noting that "students" are not above inflicting sexual violence on locals and each other. The cops and universities have naturally covered this up.
If a student had set fire to your car as well as the cars of some of your friends and neighbours, then within a few month that student died!
Would you not be "Dancing on our Dead"?
Would you not have a blog with the heading "Scourge on Society found dead in Holylands"?
There is a fundamental difference between the acts of residents tormented in their own homes and given no legal means of redress on the one side and those of their tormentors. Your "moral equivalence" argument does not stand up to scrutiny.
Why do you seem to be the only non-student commenting on this blog?
Doesn't seem like you have much support, your fighting a loosing battle mate!
Holy shit i see it now...
the Holylands situation is on par
with the atrocities in South Africa, the holocaust, my lai massacres.
U are a bitter man who because he has read a few books and who, as you have said, has had his heart broken by academia feels the need to attack those who have suceeded where you have failed. Because they, many of whom come from a disadvantaged background like myself, are able to make the most of oppurtunities they have been given and who will most likely have a better quality of life then you. Why dont you go back to school, get ur degree and wise the fuck up. You are an attention seeker. The problem is because of a minority on both sides. you are part of the problem.
PS can we have our sign back.
To tell you the truth I don't know why the residences are complaining, if they slept as much as they lie out in their front gardens sunning themseleves then they would not ave any problem gettin their recommended daily amount of sleep!! Plus 90% of them are on the dowl ("Job Seeker allowance" the posh word for it)so therefore getting a free house, if they don't like the noise get the fuck out and sleep on the streets, we actually pay rent!
"P.S Spell check that, you asshole!" I don't need a computer to spell or grammar check the comments sent to this blog.
"Why do you seem to be the only non-student commenting on this blog?"
There are hardly any residents left. Those that remain are immersed in despair. I hope you're proud of what you and your mates have done to them.
"PS can we have our sign back."
Queens sent people to take it away after it appeared on this blog.
"Plus 90% of them are on the dowl ("Job Seeker allowance" the posh word for it)so therefore getting a free house, if they don't like the noise get the fuck out and sleep on the streets, we actually pay rent!"
Your honesty is admirable. You hate working class people. You should join Ogra Sinn Fein. You could also learn to spell "dole".
To me working class people are people that actually go to work and worked to get their jobs not sit no their arse sunning themselves all fucking day, and maybe go round the streets now and again picking up rubbish just to keep their dowl money coming in for another!
People like you take advantage of systems like that, they are designed as a temporary measure for people who out of work for a short period of time, it is not for people to use a a methond for full time income!!
You would have to actually work to be considered 'working class'!!!
Also, I made no mention of using a computer to spell check my previous comment. I don't doubt your superior skills in the English language which is why I wished for you to check my comment for any grammatical or spelling errors. Besides it appears you have nothing better to do than fixate on the other blogger’s apparent lack of ability in regards to the English language!! Did you ever think that perhaps they might be playing up to your ‘only need to be able to read the fertilizer bags and cow tags’ stereotype?
Anyway back to the point, we’ve established you can spell the word ‘job’ but do you know what it means??
No, didn’t think so!!
And before you ask… No, I do not wish to join Ogra Sinn Fein, I have better things to do with my time than paint post boxes green!!!
I love the gown!
"Did you ever think that perhaps they might be playing up to your ‘only need to be able to read the fertilizer bags and cow tags’ stereotype?"
Having lived among them I can safely say that they're not faking it
"And before you ask… No, I do not wish to join Ogra Sinn Fein, I have better things to do with my time than paint post boxes green!!!"
You could always get a job with the Andytown News, voice of the New Hard Right.
I hate being a censor. A comment came in that was excellent. Unfortunately it also gave the address of a hostel. We know that sex offenders are anonymously housed in the Holylands, but it would be criminal incitement to publish the address of a property suspected of housing them. Can the person who sent in the comment get back to me with the same content, but without the giving of addresses and names of hostels. I thought the comment was otherwise excellent and should be published. What I may do is cut and paste the content of the current one in one of my own comments because it is too good to let slip away via the delete button.
Blogger won't let me copy/paste the comment so can the author get back to me.
Exams are soon over so you will be glad to no that you can sleep in peace for a few months now, but make the most of it because it won't be long until we return!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
It would be funny if it wasn't so serious.
Who are you to portray students as stereotypical louts? As in most cases it's the worst of the bunch that people focus on, giving the rest a bad reputation.
Also, if you bothered to look a bit closer you would realise not all students are wealthy and most of us are struggling with finances!
At the end of the day you are jealious of students because they are trying to better themselves while you are just useless louts who want everything handed to you on a plate!!
Do you have a job?
Do you own your house?
Do you pay taxes?
Just a few points:
1. There is a difference between writing an academic essay/thesis/dissertation and posting a comment on a blog. You don't need to use a style guide for the latter to begin with, and the use of slang and lack of grammatical perfection does not signal a lack of intelligence.
2. As has already been mentioned, you need to work to be deemed 'working-class'.
3. You no longer live in the Holylands, so surely the wise thing to do would be to stop dwelling on the past and get on with what must now be a much brighter future?
4. Let the dead rest in peace.
5. 'You can't study in the Holyland, and "students" do not go there in order to do so. It is nakedly and undeniably Partyland. No-one can pretend otherwise.' It's not impossible to study in the Holylands. Or sleep for that matter. What is difficult is to prove to residents that there is a diverse range of people that make up the student body here in the Holylands, and to tar us all with the same brush is unfair. Some of us were just unfortunate to end up here, but we make the most of a bad situation. I can't wait to get out of here personally.
Hi Alan,
Sorry I screwed up mentioning the addresses of the sex offenders hostels in the Holylands. Anyway, I cant exactly remember in detail what all I said but basically I think it went like this,
You are now out of the area, forget it, its hard to accept that you were forced out of your home as were the rest of us and an institution with the so called status as QUB and Jordanstown Polytech stood by and let this happen, but we have great satisfaction watching the gombeen men squirm now as they find they cant let out or sell their property.
The Holy land is going to implode but who would live there now?? I will rephrase the other blog ref sex offenders and you can edit it as you please. But can I say on this one "the dogs in the street know where they are"
I believe I also said if I had known you 5 years ago I could have introduced you to a double dealing financial advisor, there were 00's in Belfast, and got you a mortgage on your house/with the relevant discount and like the rest of us sold it to a gombeen landlord at 000's above its normal price. I sold my house to a greedy bastard for £190,000 when a far better but similar house was worth £110,000 in Oakland Ave East Belfast. The greedy gombeen can niether let it or sell it at the moment and has financial probs. I know his ex sister in law so I hear all the buzz.. reference unfortunate landlords.
I think I also said that you should now, at the age of 40 try, and I know its hard, to forget the Holylands as you have now a new home outside it. Start to rebuild you life and learn to live without anti-depressants. Follow your dream.
I wake up every morning to birds signing, a view of the Mournes and my business is successful and can thrive in a depression. How do I do it, ask an ass hole from QUB how to sell and prosper in a credit crunch/depression.
Alan, leave the Holylands to the Mr Tonys, Katrinas and Farrells of this world. They need the Holylands, they need something to fill the gap in their sad lives. I heard Farrell say on radio that he lived between two parks and a beautiful river, has he sinus problems???
This is the 20/5/07 did anybody notice the stench from that"beautiful river"
Enough said.
I understand you could not print my blog reference, addresses of sex offenders in the Holylands.
But:
76% of sex offenders are housed in South Belfast,
56% are housed in the Holylands/university area
and as they resident population was decimated no-one no longer knows who their neighbour is???????
and when some silly little asshole student (male or female) staggers through the district bombed out of their skull and gets raped or sexually assualted,
THERE ARE NO RESIDENTS LEFT, THERE IS NO COMMUNITY LEFT TO GIVE A DAM.
WHAT MORE CAN I SAY???
"No nation in this world are as morally debased as the People of Ireland"
It's this sort of woe-is-me attitude that has made this country so backwards. The Irish nation, especially here in the North, can't broaden its horizons to the future; it has to entrench itself in the past and get caught in a vicious cycle of anger, hatred and violence. The Holylands is just a microcosm of the whole blasted thing. Get on with living your life, leave the past where it is; behind you.
"It's not impossible to study in the Holylands. Or sleep for that matter. What is difficult is to prove to residents that there is a diverse range of people that make up the student body here in the Holylands, and to tar us all with the same brush is unfair."
I'm tired of hearing this point so I'll copy/paste a comment I put in a previous strand. When it comes to sleep and study ask the families whose kids cant sleep or study for their A-levels. Their future gets fucked so rich cunts can have their party. Here'r the previous reply:-
I don't agree that it is only a "tiny minority". This line has been pushed and pushed by the universities and their proxies in BHRA for over ten years. It simply does not tie with my experience and that of loads of other ex/residents. Look at Halloween for example. There is no escaping the fact that at least half of Queens undergraduates do not go to class. Therefore they are here to abuse education and have a 3 year party. They are disproportionately drawn to the Holylands therefore a large majority of the "student" population there are "bogus students" who use the place as a holiday camp.
Alan,
Regarding the issue around tarring all students with the same brush... I think its an issue you need to examine a bit more...
Let me explain!
I worked for years in SU land, I even worked with you my dear man, I've lived in the area and I've studied while living in the area. I know as much as anyone can on the subject, in fact while sitting in one night with friends working on a group project the door was kicked in and windows were smashed, so I know.
I also know that those particular muppets were drunken yobs pretending to be students...
I will raise no argument in the fact that the place is so over occupied and over built that the problems have increased tenfold, more probably, and I will always say that the Universitites simply haven't got the inclination or the morality to care what goes on but the fact remains, there are students in there who would much rather be in South Baghdad than in South Belfast.
Now, is it right to simply say that and not discuss landlords, or slumlords as you so rightly describe them, no.
When a two up two down gets turned into a building with anything up to 15 people, who will fairly frequently go on a bender, and that number is multiplied across the area in hundereds of houses, chaos is the only outcome.
Simply put, if students come looking for drink and trouble they should be sent home, alas the Universities are never going to do that.
The Universities, the City Council Planning Department and the Housing Executive have a lot to answer for, they have essentially allowed the situation to continue and comment that their hands are tied by legislation, change it I say. However the fact remains that the chaos isn't applicable to every single student.
I've visited students in hospital who were left for dead in the streets by thugs and hoods who live in the area, I delivered shopping to students who were too bloody terrified to leave the house after attacks. I even went so far as to employ the help of some "well established local figures" to stand guard in order that we could move people out of their homes under the cover of darkness as they were in danger from those same hoods. By they way, the police did nothing, zip.
it seemed their hands were tied too.
I commend you, both in person and on here, for the work you do in highlighting what is a crazy situation, on the basis that no one else seems to want to touch it, but you have to face the fact that there are many innocent, and probably terrified students living there.
Thats saying nothing of the yokels and loudmouth idiots who insist in typing in CAPITAL LETTERS, honestly, one would wonder where they were being edumacated...
the "alanmurrayisahomo" comment is particularly concerning, I truly hope that the poster never crosses my path in any kind of situation, let alone a 'proffessional' one, its almost as though he was let out for the day and found a computer...
For all of that, I hope you are well mate, enjoy the cricket...
I remember student politics. I met many good, genuine people. They were swamped by careerists, criminals and carpetbaggers. It was, as they say, the best of times and the worst of times. The wounds heal, but the scars remain.
I remember the baseball bat attack. The sight of the intubation feeder and dried blood is never forgotten. The Holylands has always had hoods and violent criminals. Some leave to get away from the noise to be replaced by others. We had a smack dealer in my street many years ago who was a tout and therefore free to work unmolested until he sped through a road block and killed a cop.
Some issues are subjudice, so I have to be careful with my language. There is an individual, whom I cannot name, who is free to indulge his taste for extreme violence. He is free to enter a student house and stab someone. He is free to beat someone to a pulp in the middle of the street. He is free to repeatedly strangle someone in broad daylight while others stand and watch. He, and others, are simply above the law. I never feared Arbuckle, but I fear certain others. I barely survived the assault on me. My crime was speaking out.
There are genuine students in the Holyland. In seventeen years the house on one side of me had never been a problem. It had three bedrooms and a seemingly conscientious landlord. Now he's planning a loft conversion and second extension. He was also the landlord of the house you mention, so I suppose this latest move should come as no surprise. Landlords have raped the Holyland to death. Planning allowed them. The Housing Executive financed them with grants. See the photo essay "They've abolished the community......":-
http://holylandswarzone.blogspot.com/2008/02/theyve-abolished-community-and-invented.html
Some years ago Alex Maskey came to a residents' meeting and sang the praises of Declan Boyle and the brother of the landlord I've just been discussing. As I've said before, these two are exceptional in that they are not involved in money laundering. Maskey's a wily man. Afterwards he told me that permission must, by law, be given to every planning application made by every landlord. When I told him that landlordism is a seedy horrible business run by seedy horrible people he disagreed vociferously and disappeared out the door very fast.
Genuine students are a dwindling minority in the Holyland. I was a fool, in a different life, to believe otherwise. I've learned a hard lesson. It's no place for anyone to live, or sleep, or study.
I should also mention that individual who, many years ago, with his friends, kicked a student into a coma, is a notorious heroin dealer and informer. He appeared, with his face obscured, on the front page of the South Belfast News selling drugs in an entry off Botanic Avenue. A certain fast food joint has been forced to close it's toilet because junkies were scoring heroin in it. They appear to have moved their shit over to Madisons. I chose to keep my backside shut rather than use a toilet with a used syringe floating in it. That give a whole new meaning to the term "anally retentive".
Would the person in question have ginger hair?
Possibly
Very possibly;)
You have both got it right the person with the ginger hair and his cronies was run out of Castlewellan
recently. He WAS a £10 tout. He robbed a taxi driver at knife point one night and was caught... two cops went to court and mitigated for him and he got a suspended sentence. I know you have to be careful what you print so I will put the next bit in another reply.
To continue, Ginger's granny was given an honary Phd for her contribution towards peace a few yrs ago by QUB. When she invited Hillay Clinton to her wee cafe the Ormeau Road was disserted, says something doesnt it?
And by the way did anyone know Katrina is an honorary graduand? I dont normally curse when I write but please, someone, tell me what the FUCK is an honorary graduand?????? I wrote this separately in case you cant print it.
To continue, Ginger's granny was given an honary Phd for her contribution towards peace a few yrs ago by QUB. When she invited Hillay Clinton to her wee cafe the Ormeau Road was disserted, says something doesnt it?
And by the way did anyone know Katrina is an honorary graduand? I dont normally curse when I write but please, someone, tell me what the FUCK is an honorary graduand?????? I wrote this separately in case you cant print it.
One more comment. Over the years I have met a lot of very brilliant young people in the course of my work. I couldnt help noticing those who wanted to pursue academia went to unis in mainland Britain, most of them never came back. All they would say was "they didnt fancy Queens or Jordanstown." They werent impressed with what they saw on TV etc and quite a few lived within the vicinity of the Holylands.
Yesterday I met a young lad I hadnt seen for a few years. He told me he obtained three straight "A" s at A level GCE. I asked him if he was at uni, he said to me, "No way I dont want to be cast with the stigma of "student".
He was always interested in cars bikes etc so he got an apprenticeship with a top N.I. dealer and is serving his time to the trade he loves, BUT this is what interested me.
This guy enrolled with the O.U. and is doing a mixtue of courses in businesss/maths and something engineering to pursue his ambition. He is in no hurry and is earning good money from day one, plus he has they job of servicing my car from now on.
Is this the way forward?? Learn a skill and study from home, the technology is there, just look at the O.U. and have a multiplicity of talents?
Can I open a debate on this??
I have to be VERY careful about what I publish, so the other contributions about "honorary" qualifications are too close to the bone. However I will google "honorary graduand" and see what turns up.
I think a debate on the intellectual meltdown is long overdue. There is such a stigma associated with the local universities that young people are going away rather than study here. Our brightest and best are leaving and not coming back. The thought that the creatures who run rampant in the Holyland will become our new professional class must fill any civilised human being with horror. We appear to be a society in intellectual and cultural freefall.
The idea of studying from home at the Open University has much intuitive appeal. It is an educational force that is inherently democratic. It may be the only thing that can save our society from the tyranny of the Killer Hillbillies. The working class are being locked out of higher education by fees and the abolition of grants. The OU may be the only option left. There is a vast reservoir of academic potential wasted in our society and globally.
It is time that the Working Class accepted ownership of their own experience and started expecting intellectual endeavour of themselves and their children. People must accept that there is more to life than reading the Sun, watching game shows and drinking cheap booze.
You may have gathered that I reject utterly the narrative put forward by the Provos that Working Class Youth need "Zero Tolerance" and the heavy hand of the cops. Once upon a time Restorative Justice was about communities accepting ownership of their own miscreants and reincorporating them rather than stigmatizing and criminalising them. The head of restorative justice in West Belfast has been exposed as a very long time informer and the dogs in the street know that the Provos have deliberately allowed bad things to happen so that they can corral their own communities into the hands of the cops. Just read the Andytown News to see the party line.
All of these issues need to be debated. Contributions are welcome here.
The hypocrisy of the Provos calling for the Iron Heel to come down on the "communities" (read Ghettos) while allowing mob rule in the Holyland shows what side they're on in the Class War. Some people tried to tell us that 40 years ago. Now we know that the "War" was all for nothing. And no, I'm not a Stick (they're up to their armpits in graft too), but I always thought the "War" was an absurdity. However even I never thought it was fought so that water could be privatised, maternity units bulldozed and cancer services run for profit. All of this is done by the biggest landlords in Northern Ireland. As Connolly would say "Whoop it up for Ireland"
You couldn't make it up. I rest my case.
What an irony to see Queens University Belfast host a Peace Conference last week. This institution turned a beautiful mixed area, an area mixed both politically, religiously and ethnically into a republican hole.
It was ludicrous to witness the Vice chancellor, pro vice chancellors and their cronies, dress up and parade to the Whitla Hall in their regalia, do they think anyone was impressed??
The real people who worked for peace in this country were on the ground working and organising cross community initiatives, often at risk to their own lives while people like George Bain or Ken Brown remained hermetically sealed in their ivory towers oblivious to what was going on in the real world.
Alan Murray aka The Oxford Dictionary Police!!
Just to let all you good folks know: Ginger has been spotted about the Holylands again recently: in particular looking at empty houses and threatening local shop staff in his drunken stupor...what a "loveable rouge" as his handlers, I mean the local police, called him in court.
Not being rude, but your insistence on being 'working class' does not sem to have much of a foundation, as far as I can see you spend so much time on this you must have little or no time for working....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4243345.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7013688.stm
He was not evil. Mischievous yes, but not malicious.
The cop started the fight with him. He beat the rap for attempted murder on the basis that the cop started it.
I don't condone the car burning, but it and other acts gave us a year in Jerusalem street that tolerable. This is the awful truth. If you put people's backs to the wall they will lash out. Deny them legal means of redress and they will resort to any means necessary. I don't endorse it, but people have been given no alternative.
Your arguements are completely invalid, you have no legitimate comebacks to any of these comments and you stereotype students. Do you actually, trully, in all honesty believe for one second that all students are 'scumbags' and 'hillbillie cunts'? I certainly don't believe that all longterm residents, (I say 'longterm' residents because I and indeed all students living in the Holylands are 'residents'. I reside, therefore I am a resident) are hypocritical, pseudo-intellectual twats like yourself. I, unlike yourself do not shoebox everyone from a particular segment of the community as the same. There are good and bad people everywhere.
As for your opinion that the students in the Holylands are 'comfy rich cunts', I would just like to say, I and most of the students I know and associate with are from working class backgrounds. I grew up in the Bogside area of Derry and I am proud of this. YOU are the snob Mr. Murray! You are the one looking down your nose at others. You seem to believe that you are somehow intellectually superior to us. Even if your I.Q. is higher than that of a few dozen students, that gives you absolutely no right to look down on them.
And just what the fuck is your big obsession with grammar and spelling? This is an internet blog not an essay or an email to an advisor of studies. People leaving comments here are not being marked or assessed! People write in shorthand to save time much the same as many professionals do when taking notes. If you read your own blog, you will soon realise that your own grammar is far from perfect. At the beginning of your "Dancing on our Dead" blog entry, you state that Arbuckle had a "finance". I believe you mean 'fiancee' Mr. Murray.
Another thing. You said that it is impossible to study in the Holylands. I beg to differ. Between myself, everyone else in my house on Damascus Street and my five friends in their house in Carmel Street, only one is repeating the year and the reason for this is that he was sick during the year and couldn't complete his work experience. Bear in mind that all of us studied in our repective houses.
I would like to ask you one more thing Mr. Murray. Do you agree or disagree with the burning of students' cars and the intimidation of residents (students) by Mr. Arbuckle. And before you ask, no, I do not agree with the intimidation of longterm residents or indeed any residents.
I'm sure you'll have numerous stupid and invalid arguements to answer this comment and you'll probably end up by not answering my questions or waffle on, never quite getting to the point, slagging off my grammar and finally concluding by calling me and my fellow students stupid, rich, hillbilly thugs.
By the way, if it wasn't for 'hillbillies', or to use a less American term, farmers, our economy would be in an even less desirable state and you would have to pay even more for your steaks and spuds you fat self-riteous prick!
I thought I was pompous. There you go; there's always someone worse than yourself.
I thought it was funny for the farmers' spokesman to declare "the era of cheap food is over" while pocketing a huge farming subsidy. It's nice to know they contribute something to the world.
I view semi-literate postings from the "cognitive elite" as a sign of intellectual meltdown. No wonder Our brightest and best are fucking off.
If you have a "term time address" where you drink and fuck and crash for five nights a week and a "home address" you obviously reside elsewhere not Belfast.
I'm glad you can study in the Holylands. I'm obviously suffering from some profound inadequacy, but then so are those who left because they couldn't take it anymore, and so are those who are stuck there and can't get out and can do fuck all about it. Is it any wonder they fight back? They have no other option. It was always going to come to this. If people had woken up twelve years ago they could have stopped this thing in its tracks. For obvious legal reasons I can't endorse violence, but it was the only thing that could have saved the area and the only resort left to people denied all legal means of redress. I suggest you read the Suzanne Breen article and the Trevor O'Neill interview. "Students are not criminals"??????? He's just given them a license to do whatever they want. Don't tell me that's not class privilege.
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