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Books
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Books: Listening to Van Morrison…
Great little review of Listening to Van Morrison by Griel Marcus… It’s a short book, not a biography or a career survey, but an attempt to follow those moments in Morrison’s music, as he’s made it from his first records with Them, from Belfast in 1965 to the present day, when something happens that breaks [...] read our review »
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The Earl Bishop
Interesting BBC article on an upcoming presentation and talk [Roe Valley Arts and Cultural Centre, 17 August] by lecturer and broadcaster Stephen Price on the subject of his new book – The Earl Bishop. The 18th Century ”Earl Bishop” was Frederick Augustus Hervey, fourth Earl of Bristol and Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry. Hervey was also elected [...] read our review »
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O’Toole’s New Republic – unfinished business or just a dream?
More as a trailer than a review – as it’s out on Thursday– I draw attention to Fintan O’Toole’s latest polemic “Enough is Enough – how to build a new Republic“. Fintan has been promoting the book vigorously on this side of the water, on Radio 4’s Start the Week and here at greater length [...] read our review »
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Scary stuff to see those kids standing around watching.
One slight mistake by the driver and someone could get mown down
Sends shivers down my spine.
Since Mick beat me to it, here’s the post I prepared last night for publication later…
ANYONE who saw the latest (woefully bad!) Fast and the Furious movie will have seen fans of illegal street races record the cars on their mobile phone cameras. Northern Ireland now has its own version – home-made movies of joyriding in Belfast.
Most of the videos are pretty low quality and amateurish. A couple have some graphics, and one has primitive titles, mostly of indecipherable acronyms, but “F.T.RA” and “UTH” obviously stands for F*** the IRA and Up the hoods. The message is anti-authoritarian, two fingers at both republicans or the state laying down the law. As one commenter wrote below a video: “im from west belfast on the falls and I think they should be kneecapped, the ra let them get outta control”.
Some of those in the videos can be clearly identified, and one visitor to the site left a message saying that he’d passed on details about it to the PSNI. Another reaction to this video was negative: “thats on the grosvenor road isint it just outside dunville park, thats near a hospital you dickhead”.
YouTube seems to have started removing some of the videos.
Sorry Gonzo…
Where are the police…oh, sorry, I forgot.
One step away from those beheading videos that came out of Iraq. Thank God they did not have the internet during the so called troubles…
Was that Jeremy Clarkson I spotted driving one of the big boys toys?
Mick
I’m really surprised at you allowing this stuff on your site. To me it’s nothing more than a form of pornography and could be seen as glorifying the action of a bunch of young cretins. People like them in West Belfast have killed themselves and a lot of innocent people. I can remember a young boy being mown down only yards from where this video was filmed on the Grosvenor Road. At its most basic, the cars being destroyed belong to people who worked hard to provide them.
calm yourself eamon…the purpose of this site is to knock catholics….besides, the kids need something to do
Where are those kids parents? I mean, look at the last part of the video, its at night and some wee lad is throwing his hands in the air, cheering. He shouldnt be even witnessing this affair never mind getting kicks out of it. Future joyrider in the making. We’re going backwards instead of forward in this province. In every sense.
That eejit Eddie Irvine, why can’t he go chasing the wimmen? Like the rest of us.
eamonn, actually I think it’s quite right for Mick to draw attention to the videos. I had no idea that they were there, and they are a reminder that we all have a great deal of work to do to sort out this problem.
My question is, where the feck are the cops ?
Eamon
We need to see what’s there, or just go and buy an old fashioned paper. Where are the cops? Where’s parenting? Where are the new ‘Peace People’? A community failed by its so-called leaders
Eamon,
To most people who don’t have to endure it, joy riding is just an annonymous news item. This link demonstrates how dangerous it actually is.
Very true Mick. This old fogey thought it just meant kids stealing a car and driving around the city for a lark.
Eamon
I can remember the night the young child you mention was killed very well as I witnessed the aftermath, a scene I will never forget.
I get very angry when I see pictures like these and, like most people in west Belfast, I would have a very low tolerance level for joyriders and the fools who ‘egg’ them on by acting as cheering spectators for them.
I also have little time for the parents who, in most instances, know full well what ‘little johnny’ is up to but can’t be bothered nailing him to a wall in the home to prevent him from torturing the local community.
I find it frightening listening to youngsters- many of whom I have taught- and the manner in which they discuss joyriding, as if it were a thrilling endeavour, devoid of consequences. It really is something that needs to be hammered into children from a very young age.
Mobile phone cameras are upping the ante in this behaviour- before their advent the buzz happened at the time of the crime, now it’s easily recorded and relived. In fact the joyriders are probably watching their own form and seeing what they’ll do different next time. The audience for this kind of video content is going to grow and so will the competitive edge, except it won’t be confined to the Grosvenor road, but will see kids in different timezones uploading footage of their latest “achievements”. While you can’t blame the technology you can surmise that manufacturers predicted the implications of including video and photo capabilities in what is supposed to be a communications device- “happy slapping”, videoed knife attacks, footage of an underage girl doing the rounds in Cork last year to name the ones I’m aware of. Well done to Mick (and Gonzo) for spotting this and publicising it.
These look like excerpts from a video that was being sold last year for a £5.
Who needs multi-million pound arts centres and subsidised cultural events when you can watch entertainment like that for free at a pedestrian crossing near you?
Working within a multi-agency car crime project, this footage is very worrying. It has long been recognised that young people get involved in car crime at an early age by watching stolen cars. Now with new technology these clips can pass through a school in a matter of minutes, so young people don’t need to be there to witness the event first hand. This project (IMPACT) is trying to get the message out to all young people, Say No to the Show! and dont watch or participate in this behaviour.
You have to go one further step Paul. If you come across it, call the police.
It’s almost enough to make one nostalgic for the petrol-free days of the UWC strike.
The Greens(ecological variety) have it – electric cars or lump it!
The Gardaí in Donegal were faced with the same problem a few years back, and rather than adopt a heavy-handed approach, they went out and set up an off-road facility where the joy-riders could do their thing to their hearts content, while in addition getting advanced driving lessons from trained Garda drivers, and courses in car maintainance.
I don’t know if it had any effect on the car crime stats, however. Anyone from Donegal out there who can tell us?
And of course, the truly nihilistic will still do it on the public roads, regardless of what ‘better’ facilities are available. The thrills are better where the risks are higher.
do the donegal garda supply their own morris minors….you lot need to wise up ffs….the lads are having a bit of crack…would you rather they got a job, took out hire purchase and a mortgage and give their lives to a bank….fcuk away off….some people have more sense
ps…more people die from alcohol and smoking related illnesses than they do from joyriding, so its a relatively safe sport