Campaign
of -- what would you call it? Slander, a slanderous
campaign going on, to do with the community association
and ourselves in particular. Accusations flying
about -- what are we into? Today we have heard we
are running a protection racket, that a group of
young lads are going about telling people to give
money or they will be put out. Which is complete
nonsense. We are supposed to be into selling fireworks,
drugs. It's sick. I don't know where this... Breaking
into factories and stealing and selling stuff on,
classing on like renegades.
Complete
and utter nonsense, all these empty houses that
are supposed to be here, people can come up and
see, they aren't there.
The
unionists are having a laugh at Sinn Fein, running
off on half cocked stories, ghost stories. Instead
of 90% true and flowering 10% up, it's the other
way round.
For
example, this lastest story about the fire, supposed
to have been arson, TV reports and all, and it looks
to be that the kids were smoking in the room and
threw the butt out the window when they thought
they heard someone coming up the stairs, and the
curtains caught. The fire started from the inside,
not the outside.
So
what you have here is stories being presented in
the news one way and the truth is actually the other
way round. And even when it is proved as lies, certain
media is hellbent on presenting the lies, not the
truth. They would rather maintain relationships
with the liars than be true journalists and print
the truth.
The
Antrim Council is a unionist led council and the
papers go with the unionist line all the time and
they are hellbent on slapping a bad name on Rathenraw,
a mainly nationalist estate, and Sinn Fein are keen
on joining in with those people to do that. We put
SF to defend us and to help us on our estate, not
to go against us in everything they do.
I
was with Sinn Fein since 1997, 1998. I joined to
benefit the estate, to try and get a voice for the
nationalist people in Antrim, because they didn't
have one, and that's why I had stood for the Council
at the time, because I could see the difference
in the estates, difference in funding, and Rathenraw
was getting very little. Things needed to be highlighted,
nationalists being beaten, jobs, job opportunities
were as bad in Antrim as they had been in Belfast
years ago. We were doing work with one wee lad who
worked round in the factories, his supervisor called
him his 'pet taig' -- in this day and age! So all
these things led to my joining, just to stand up
for what is right, there was nothing right going
on in Antrim.
I've
stood for council for Sinn Fein about four times,
elections and by-elections, because I thought they
were a party for the people, as they make out. I
did a lot of constiuency work, getting heating for
people, a women's group, educating myself along
the way. Trying to work, hold down a job as well,
all the while, and rearing 8, now 9 kids.
I
got disillusioned when the two councillors got in,
got elected, completely turned tail, more interested
in what's being built, who owns the fields. People
want them to be fighting their corner for them in
the council, not worry about who owns what. People
want to know why the youth club has to close, why
they can't get play parks. Issues that concern them
and their children's well being. The meetings about
our areas they don't turn in to.
It's
hard getting funding for things residents need if
everytime you lift the press you're reading about
the muck, some of the muck is going to stick, and
I don't understand why they are throwing the muck.
In the end it is the nationalist community of Rathenraw
that is going to suffer, and it is our own representatives
that are depriving us of this. It's another thing,
if he turns around and says you are going to lose
funding, and he doesn't turn up at meetings he's
needed to represent us, and then he turns around
and says it was this that and the other in the press,
and blames us, it isn't right.
There's
plenty of muck, of dirt we could throw, about our
councillors, but we don't want to go down that road
of tit for tat. We want them to buck up their act
and start doing their job that they were elected
to do, or else resign. Stand down and allow someone
who is going to do the job and work for the people
to step up and get the job done. For us and with
us.
5
years ago, Rathenraw was in the top worst crime
areas in the Antrim borough, and now it is the lowest
crime rate. We have worked hard. But we know people
if they want to move out, they know they can claim
initimidation and the police will go along with
it. Some of it is a game, people do it because they
think, aye, we're moving out, everything is sweet,
then they move out and realize how much they liked
it here. One woman went to Scotland, she had made
a big stink about how she was put out, now she is
petitioning back to come back, it's like that, if
it was intimidation you wouldn't be able to come
back in, the housing executive wouldn't put you
back in. But people are happy to run those stories
because it makes a good story, instead of taking
the time to find the truth.
Me
personally, I take great offense at the remarks
that have been in the paper because I am part of
the Community Association and this all reflects
on myself and my family. I take it personally when
they are saying these things, they are blaming me
and they are making targets out of us, out of our
kids.
We
only left Sinn Fein this past May, so any families
that are alleged to be put out, or intimidated before
May, it must have been under Sinn Fein's say so
and under their approval, as these complaints have
only come to surface because we left Sinn Fein.
So either there was not and is not a problem with
people being intimidated out of the estate or this
is because Sinn Fein is upset that we have left
and are playing up this angle to discredit us, to
throw muck because we left. I can tell you there
have not been 20 families that have been initimdated
out of here since May, as they claim. There definitely
hasn't been 20 put out in the last five years. It
depends on the paper you read, too, and the councillor
that tells it, the figures are totally mad. Some
papers say 12 families, some say 16 or 18, other
papers say 20. It's all a joke, one is claiming
one family a week is going. For a small estate of
250 houses for one a week to be going it wouldn't
take long for the whole estate to be replaced. Yet
no one is checking the claims to find out the truth.
3
people have gone to the media claiming to have been
intimidated, they are all close friends of each
other or family. One other person left in contention,
but they say it was their own free will, they did
not go to the media over it claiming intimidation.
Numbers make no difference, the fact is it's a load
of nonsense. People leave the estate, of course
that happens everywhere, but they leave for normal
reasons, not for being intimidated as is being claimed
or made out. It is like they are counting up everyone
who has moved and saying they were intimidated,
and that's just not true. Family disputes turn into
politics months later. Just thinking about it, within
the last 5 years I can think of about 8 or 9 people
who left because of intimidation, which includes
neighborly disputes, fighting with neighbors, children
fighting, stuff like that, not people being intimidated
by Sinn Fein or the Community Association. Mostly
neighbourly stuff, windows broke by neighbors or
kids in the street, not an orchestrated campaign.
And for a number of them, we did attempt mediation,
and used CRJ to try to resovle the problems to keep
people from moving or feeling that was their only
option.
Hopefully
next year we will have a play park, and an all weather
pitch. We are working on community gardens and stuff
like that, and hopefully the community centre will
be built. We are still continuing the community
work. Hopefully we can secure funding to help people's
well-being in our own area, the likes of a Well
Man Clinic, if we secure funding and we can do different
projects for children and the adults in the area.
Rathenraw is such a nice open and green space for
children and families to be brought up, in a nice,
caring and safe environment. People take a pride
in the place where they live. We are trying to stamp
out graffiti and work with the children to take
pride in where they live and take pride in their
home. We invite anyone to come up and see, we would
argue that Rathenraw is the best estate in Antrim.
It's a place where people want to live. No matter
what happens or what is said, we are here to stay,
we have a strong community assication that is growing
in numbers and strength and is working for all the
community and will continue to do so. This is where
we live, and have lived for the past 25 years and
I'm now bringing up a second generation living here.
I've a lot invested in this community and I want
to do what I can to make it the best I can. I actually
do love Rathenraw, there's not many other places
I can think of that I'd rather be.
