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To
many of us who live in Belfast, the Rathenraw Estate
in Antrim town for long conjured up the image of a
drugs bazaar where various substances were bought
and sold on the open market. It had the feel of a
mini-Amsterdam. In recent years a vigorous community
response has changed Rathenraw completely. The transformation
there has been more than a mere face-lift. Talking
to the residents who live there, a strong vibrancy
and confidence is exuded. Once the estate to escape
from it has become a sought after place of residency
for many families eager to ensure their young grow
up free from the menace of serious drug abuse. Of
the numerous residents I have spoken to over the past
month none dissented from the view that Sinn Fein
played a major role in the clean-up campaign. A large
measure of the party’s electoral success in Antrim
town and the surrounding area can be explained by
the hard work put in on the ground and in particular
the zero tolerance displayed towards drug dealers.
In
Rathenraw, many of those people who were at the coal
face of community activism, now find themselves seriously
at odds with the party on whose behalf they laboured
so strenuously. In fact the entire Rathenraw Sinn Fein
cumann has resigned. Some of those who stepped outside
of the tent had given much of their time and energy
to promoting republican politics. In the case of Paddy
Murray who chaired the cumann, most of the 1990s imprisoned
did little to subdue his commitment to the political
vision that drives him. Aine Gribbon, a mother of
eight, was a three times candidate for the party in
local council elections.
Having
made many trips to the estate over the past month
in response to requests by residents who felt they
were voiceless, I quickly detected the frustration
experienced by people who were convinced they were
being given grossly inadequate political representation
by the two Sinn Fein politicians on Antrim Council.
From house to house, the message was the same –
‘useless.’ This held true for Sinn Fein
voters, former party members and residents with no
party affiliations, alike.
Underlying
tension between Rathenraw republicans and the Sinn
Fein bureaucracy first exploded when a local republican
band was prevented from taking part in a South Armagh
hunger strike commemoration in May. It was accused
of having a reputation for being ‘rowdy.’
New Sinn Fein, wanting to appear respectable, decided
that much of its previous earthy character would have
to be jettisoned. The response of the Rathenraw cumann
was to resign.
Since
then, the former cumann members have claimed that
in a bid to isolate and undermine them, the two local
councillors and unelected party apparatchiks have
engaged in a campaign of vilification. When the estate
was subjected to sectarian attack, the former party
members who rallied to its defence were accused by
their former colleagues of having provoked the loyalists.
Since then they have been described as gang leaders
and 'Fagin' type characters.
In
recent weeks the campaign against Rathenraw republicans
was intensified and extended to community workers.
This has culminated in committee members of the Rathenraw
Community Association, a democratically constituted
body, being intimidated and told to stand down from
the committee.
What
for long may have been a manageable tension suddenly
exploded into serious confrontation in the wake of
a planned PSNI operation which led to the interception
of a car leaving the estate in which a large consignment
of drugs was discovered. The Community Association
was aghast. Its community image promotion campaign
had sustained a considerable dent. The person arrested
allegedly in possession of the drugs was only accepted
into the community, against the wishes of those who
lived there, on the insistence of a local Sinn Fein
councillor who vouched for the good character of the
person. The residents’ objections were based
on a strong belief that the man would bring the drugs
trade into the estate.
After
the arrest the Community Association told the partner
of the man in custody that she would no longer be
welcomed in the estate. Such an approach has many
drawbacks and community associations must tread very
carefully in order to ensure that an injustice is
not created. A prominent Belfast Sinn Fein member
tried to pressurise the Association to rescind its
decision to ask the woman to leave. With little headway
having been made, a leading figure in the Provisional
IRA informed the Residents Association chair that
the woman would be staying and there would be no further
questioning of the decision.
Unhappy
with the manner in which the issue was being dealt
with the Association called a meeting last Wednesday
in the local community centre. The meeting was publicly
advertised and the hall was packed. There seemed to
be a cross representation of views and while the discussion
that took place gave rise to disagreement on a range
of issues there was little sign of rancour. What was
evident was that the Rathenraw Community Association
had the confidence of the body of the hall. Many of
those who spoke did not pull their punches when it
came to being critical of Sinn Fein. While allegations
of threats, bullying and intimidation all surfaced, the
general critique seemed to be one of no proper political
representation.
Sinn
Fein clearly not happy with the stand taken by the
Community Association, moved muscle into the estate
on Friday. Two Sinn Fein councillors accompanied by
seven carloads of people weaved their way through
the streets. In some cases homes of those who had
been critical of the party were photographed. A female
youth worker claims to have been told she would have
to leave Antrim for good. Other reports indicate
that one man who came out to complain about the heavy-handed
approach was told he would have every bone in his
body broken if he did not go back into his home. Most
sinister of all was the charge that the home of the
chairperson of the Community Association was the site
of a ‘visit’ by seven men who banged loudly
on the door and peered through the windows. At one
point one of the ‘visitors’ was said to
have pulled a balaclava over his face.
If
these reports are true – and they are coming
from more than one source – then Sinn Fein is
engaged in thuggish intimidation of those who challenge
the party’s writ. It now seems clear what one
local party councillor meant when he told both the
Antrim Guardian and the Antrim Times
that the Republican Movement would deal with those
it had taken umbrage with.
The
Rathenraw Community Association should be free to
make decisions about its own community without the
threat of force being hurled in its direction. If
it makes the wrong decision, bullying its members
is not the way to rectify matters. The bulk of these
people, republicans included, do not oppose the peace
process and have no allegiance to any other republican
group. The former Sinn Fein members stayed with the
party through thick and thin. They did not quit over
strategic disagreements. Many of them would be happy
to be back in Sinn Fein if the party was to function
with more accountability and deliver effective representation.
What the people of Rathenraw need is to be listened
to not threatened. They are not pawns in some strategic
game that demands of them that they give up their
concerns and aspirations for their own community as
part of a bigger picture that none of them are allowed
to shape or critique.
If
what is happening in Rathenraw is weighed up in a
context of Sinn Fein trying to achieve power, what
will the party do in order to hold on to that power?
Thoughts of it ever acquiring control over justice
or policing must invoke images of the Broy Harriers.
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