Friday, May 16, 2008
West Belfast stuck in economic ‘siege mentality’?
Newton Emerson pours scorn on Forbairt Feirste’s investment conference, aimed at consolidating support for the establishment of a Ceathrú Gaeltacht (Gaeltacht Quarter) in west Belfast. (H/T Concubhar) In essence he argues that the economic aspect of case is flawed, not least since “residents of the lower Falls live within a mile of 30 per cent of all the jobs in Northern Ireland.” He goes on to accuse the area of excessively cleaving to a kind of internal separatism:
One point repeatedly raised at the west Belfast conference was that the Titanic quarter will shift the city’s economic centre of gravity to the east. But thousands of people from west Belfast once worked on Queen’s Island. They travelled there by tram and they could do so again if Sinn Fein regional development minister Conor Murphy would spend £1.86 million a year on a west Belfast light rail line.
West Belfast is a place and a community apart, not least due to the massive and traumatic population shifts of the late sixties and early seventies. Early attempts by some residents to move their families out into mixed areas, even well beyond the confines of the city ended in some of them being intimidated back into the safer reaches of their original communities. This is often underestimated by outside commentators. If there is a siege mentality, some of it arises from what many in that community would see as good reason.
But Emerson does have a point when he suggested that some of the Troubles-centric development decisions have helped deepen a sense of isolation from the rest of the city. Not least the deep (and widening) trench that is the Westlink:
One obvious and highly profitable solution would be to drop the road into a trench and roof it over, creating hundreds of acres of prime city centre real estate. It might seem perverse to suggest this while the current Westlink widening is still under way but that project ripped up years of recently completed improvements.
Even mundane cities such as Leeds manage to bury their urban motorways, despite having no local ministers with devolved powers. However, burying the Westlink has never been seriously considered throughout all the many opportunities to do so, including the Invest NI conference.
It appears that certain people, both inside and outside west Belfast, are only too happy with its tarmac moat.
He argues that Sinn Fein’s leadership on this issue is at best misguided:
Last week’s ‘cultural conference’ may have helped some republicans to cope with the stench of global capitalism emanating from the Invest NI conference. But few of the party’s constituents will be helped by pretending that a neighbourhood Irish-language quango will be a force for economic growth even if they find this tribal totem more pleasing to contemplate than the difficult decisions that are actually required.
“Whenever I hear the word ‘culture’ I reach for my gun,” Hermann Goering famously never said. Sinn Fein, conversely, has put down its gun and reached for the word ‘culture’. There is little reason to believe that this strategy will be any more successful than the last one.
Mick Fealty @ 01:30 PM
My letter in today’s Irish News:
The Irish News is to congratulated on its Irish language section, An tEolas. However, as the only English language newspaper in the country with a daily Gaelic page, it’s surprising how the language is often dealt with in the rest of the publication.
Not only are surnames, place names and the names of organisations continuously misspelt by omitting accents, but the coverage of Irish language issues is often left to partisan columnists who clearly lack an understanding of the Irish Gaelic community.
Newton Emerson (May 15), for example, while commenting on the recent Cultural Economy Conference - which aimed to highlight how language and culture can assist economic and urban renewal - failed to mention that Belfast’s Gaeltacht Quarter concept is supported by
internationally renowned urban planners and architects. He simply focused on supposed republicans attending the event.
He also uses his ‘report’ on the conference to equate Irish speakers with Sinn Féin which - as any member of the Gaelic-speaking community will tell him - is an outdated and inaccurate stereotype that says more about his views on Irish culture than it does about the island’s diverse and vibrant Irish-speaking population.Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 02:07 PMIt’s a waste of time. China has already cornered the market in plastic leprechauns.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 02:09 PMRG,
I am quite neutral on the question of An Cheathrú Ghaeltachta as you may know.
However, Newtown is pushing me into the pro-lobby!
I believe he was not actually in attendence of the conference which would seem to disqualify his remarks at least from any reporting value. (I could be wrong here, second hand knowledge).
What are your impressions as one who was in attendence?(if you were of course!).
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 02:29 PMEmerson misses the point entirely. His attack on An Cheathrú Gaeltachta is merely a cover for a general whinge about Sinn Féin and the very notion that there are people in the north who speak, read and write a different language to him and have a rich and diverse culture. That this could happen in Belfast is doubly galling.
The problem with his attack on SF, however, is that SF aren’t giving the support An Cheathru Gaeltachta needs. If SF, a senior partner in government, were to be so doing, doesn’t Newton think that An Cheathrú Gaeltachta would be one of the topics of the main conference and not a fringe event?
Did any of the SF Ministers attend the Ceathrú Gaeltachta conference? I don’t think so - so there’s very little if any evidence that SF are actually doing anything for the project at Executive level. Sure Gerry Adams supports it - but he would as it’s in his constituency. What is he actually doing to bring the project to fruition? Now there’s a question, is he, as I believe, all gong and no dinner?
Emerson’s puerile attempt to smear the conference by raising the irrelevancy of what a predecessor of one of the conference speakers, the head of the Irish American Unity Conference, is alleged to have said about the murder of Robert McCartney is loathsome and says more about his real motives for this unwarranted attack on an urban regeneration project. Unlike Craigavon, An Cheathrú Gaeltachta is NOT an artificial creation. It’s the natural and logical development of what already exists in West Belfast.
I don’t think Irish speakers should expect support from the Irish News for such a project - though it would be nice to think that the newspaper would do so - but I do expect fair play.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 02:43 PMHis article, which is overtly biased, seems to fit with the general prejudice against any manifestation of Gaelic culture in NI. The objections to Gaelic games at the Limavady Grammar School being another example.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 03:25 PMthats not to say that SF aren’t failing to support the Gaelic community.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 03:30 PMCan we deal with the substance of Newt’s argument please, instead of having a whinge about his anti-SF whinge.
That no amount of cultural centres and projects will bring about the economic injection that West Belfast so badly needs.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 03:33 PMSome of my neighbors don’t even have rubbish collections and those of us who still have an un-arsonized roof over their heads, would like something done about it.
So If I see “a rich and diverse culture” in print once more I’m going to vomit.
Our ruling atristocracy all live in Donegal, build an Utopia there.
“His article, which is overtly biased, seems to fit with the general prejudice against any manifestation of Gaelic culture in NI. The objections to Gaelic games at the Limavady Grammar School being another example.”
Do we have all ability Gaelic teams?
Up the Bohs
G.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 03:36 PM“Unlike Craigavon, An Cheathrú Gaeltachta is NOT an artificial creation. It’s the natural and logical development of what already exists in West Belfast. “
It is the same mentality.
G.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 03:38 PMYou can tell from the types who get so exercised by Emerson’s articles that he’s hitting the bullseye.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 03:41 PMNo Chekov, he’s entirely missing the bullseye. If this is the standard of his contribution, he couldn’t hit the barn door. It’s clear he knows nothing about the Ceathrú Gaeltachta except it appears to his limited vision of the world to fit a template which is designed to attack SF.
SF deserve to be attacked,not for supporting the Ceathrú Gaeltachta but for not supporting it sufficiently and effectively.
That’s the point he’s missing. But trust a self style ‘liberal’ ‘with it’ unionist to miss the point every time.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 03:50 PMHmmm… other than getting Bill Gates to buy a house in the Lower Falls,
I don’t see how we can get a multi-billionaire into the area.
We’d only set fire to his mansion,
Teemore didn’t have the extraordinary crime levels that we have in West Belfast.
G.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 03:55 PMI live in Canada. Eastern Ontario. If Newton was to write his piece here and directed it our French Canadian minority, it would be seen widely for what it is. A bigoted, prejudiced diatribe. Despite his sometimes able humour, Newton retreats from time to time into his orange laager, and from there regurgitates all kinds of unfavorable opinions upon the natives. He needs to travel more widely and learn to embrace the richness that is abundant through cultural diversity. For my part, I look forward this year, in Ottawa, to the Italian Festival, the Greek Festival, the Franco_Ontarian Festival, The Scottish Highland games, and this weekend (Queen Victoria’s Birthday, and a public holiday here) the Capital Feis (Irish Dancing and music festival). Living amongst people who embrace diversity, our Irish music and dance, and song, and conversation, is enjoyed, not disdained as Newton likes to do. Poor man. His loss.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 03:55 PM“That’s the point he’s missing. But trust a self style ‘liberal’ ‘with it’ unionist to miss the point every time.”
SF were being extravagantly tedious at St. Mary’s College, to be fair.
G.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 04:05 PMThat’s the point he’s missing. But trust a self style ‘liberal’ ‘with it’ unionist to miss the point every time.”
SF were being extravagantly tedious at St. Mary’s College, to be fair.
G.
Were you there Gregory? It seems that neither you nor Newt would allow ignorance to get in the way of an ill informed rant.
And you may have missed the point that SF are being criticised here for NOT supporting the Ceathrú Gaeltachta project adequately. SF have contributed bugger all to the this project and if they had, there might be grounds for Newt’s criticism but as there are not, his attack on the project is just another spiteful and mean spirited attack on the Irish language by a unionist.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 04:37 PMI’ve now finished laughing at the assertion of one poster above about a ‘rich and diverse culture’ (tell us more, it’s a long 48 hours until the new Family Guy on Sunday, and I could do with some more amusement), and can just about type again.
Here’s the thing, there’s a lot of sense in what Emerson writes, but he inadvertently hits upon our single biggest problem [sic - it’s actually a fact of life] when he talks of poor old Leeds being ‘mundane’. It’s not. It’s hardly a goer by mainland terms, but in terms of creating wealth, it’s a substantially more viable prospect than anywhere in NI, and most places in continental Europe. Moreover, Leeds proper has a population of c. 450,000, compared to Belfast’s 275,000, whilst Greater Belfast must be about 580,000, whereas Leeds is at least 750,000. And there’s more, specifically, many, many more people in the immediate vicinity of Leeds - almost 3 million, the vast majority of them in urban environments, all close and well linked to Leeds. Whereas here there’s, across, purely for the sake of geography, ‘historic’ 9 county Ulster, little more than a million people, many of them *not* desperately near Belfast, and infamously ill-connected even then.
So, even if you signed up for the most absurd Republican fantasyland of ‘Irish unity’, Belfast still sits there, an unproductive city, not especially near anywhere very desirable, and, all too plainly, still full of pockets of extremely disagreeable people. The government has attempted to mitigate Belfast’s misfortunes - both those it’s not responsible for, and those problems small segments of its population still insist upon inflicting on themselves (and, of course, on such among the rest of us who still feel inclined to visit Belfast) - by p*ssing public money at the City, like a hoor on crack running a Labour by-election campaign.
This hasn’t worked. The people who have money in Belfast are the people who, in relative terms, always had money. Only they now have substantially more money, and lead much more congenial lives, post the effective end of terrorism for the middle classes. The people who live off the state, which is to say off taxpayers in the Home Counties are, if anything, worse than ever. Worse in their prospects, worse in their behaviour, and yes, culpably worse in their insensible demands upon the rest of us. This garbage is just one politicised example thereof. No one can seriously argue that this rubbish is either what the people of West Belfast are actually calling out for, still less what would credibly do them any good.
Belfast, because of its political prominence is, unfortunately, apt to be compared to real world cities, the Edinburghs and Amsterdams let alone the Londons and New Yorks. Its actual tier is distinctly, and with no shame upon it for being in this league, fifth, or at potential best, fourth rate. And its solutions are therefore to be found in seeing how comparable cities coped with their directly comparable problems. All of which is a long way of saying, if this baloney of a false community dishonestly created by public funding to no practicable end had *any* merit, it would have successfully happened somewhere else first. It hasn’t, it won’t, and God, Gordon and the Punt Willing, this at last will be one begging bowl left empty.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 04:45 PMAll of which is a long way of saying, if this baloney of a false community dishonestly created by public funding to no practicable end had *any* merit, it would have successfully happened somewhere else first. It hasn’t, it won’t, and God, Gordon and the Punt Willing, this at last will be one begging bowl left empty.
God that was an awful diatribe to have to get through to get to the lie at its heart. The Belfast Gaeltacht is no ‘false community’. It is a community in which Irish spoken and which was created honestly by the hardwork of a few people. The results of this work are to be seen in the Cultúrlann, Coláiste Feirste, the many gaelscoileanna throughout the area etc. It’s not ‘begging’ for anything. It’s demanding fair play. It couldn’t have happened anywhere else first because what the ceathrú Gaeltachta is is unique to Belfast. Naturally enough it’s a bit much for someone so rooted in the ‘Home Counties’ to be able to understand that but he should note that the original report recommending the Gaeltacht Quarter project was carried out by the director of Urban Planning in Birmingham, a renowned city planner, Sir Clive Dutton.
I have very little pity for those in the Home Counties whose taxes, apparently, fund the north. But they will seldom invest their taxes in something with such potential as the Gaeltacht Quarter. If they want to see their taxes being misspent, they should look to Iraq....
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 05:02 PMThe main issue I take out of it all is SF continue to prove they do not have an economic clue.
Their drive seems to be that by creating a Irish language speaking neighbourhood, it will become some kind of tourist mecca. They seem to have forgotten that west Belfast is a complete shit hole. Obviously their objective is a shit hole with another language.
How will the creation of Irish language speaking area reduce the overabundance of unemployed spides running about the streets, broken buckfast bottles on the footpaths, paint splattered on the walls? How will it improve the condition of some of the worse housing stock in Europe and fix a completely dilapidated transport infrastructure? Finally how will it reduce the risk of getting the shit hammered out of you by some of the local fiefs for not being from around here?
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 05:09 PMBalls. Pithy enough for you?
West Belfast is one of the most deprived parts of the UK. Or if that gets your green, white and orange knickers in a twist, on the island of Ireland, few if any areas are more deprived than miserable West Belfast. This garbage addresses none of the structural or societal causes or consequences of that deprivation. It is *entirely* dependent upon someone else paying for it. There is more honesty in claiming that an Urdu-speaking enclave in, say, Bristol is anauthentic, self-sustaining ‘linguistic community’ than this pretended nonsense.
West Belfast’s problems are too important to p*ss about wasting time, money and effort on childish games like pretending that the city has anything other than an utterly artifical ‘Gaeltacht Quarter’. Thank God we’re not going to.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 05:15 PMThat ‘balls’, btw, was addressed to Concubhar O Liatháin. As far as what McGrath says, whilst it’s admirably more Anglo-Saxon than my prolix post, there’s also not a word s/he says I disagree with.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 05:18 PMnewton emerson is obviously a securocrat!
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 05:22 PMI think that Ahem seems to be going to great lengths to pour scorn on this project. The Ceathrú Gaeltachta exists - it’s a living breathing entity. It’s not looking for anything but investment to help make Belfast a more viable inclusive city. Doubting Thomases of his ilk exist in every place and every generation and if heed was paid to them, there’d be no progress- he has no clue about this project or, for that matter, Belfast but he waxes non lyrical about it nonetheless. His rhetorical claims that there is no Gaeltacht community in West Belfast are grounded in nothing but wishful thinking of the government classes who’ve tried every trick in the book to extinguish that spirit and that project. It has survived that all - the latest trick of Government is to try and extinguish it through delay and obfuscation. It won’t work. What government do is invest in its people and this community.
Sure there is deprivation in West Belfast - a result of long standing government military oppression and economic and infrastructural neglect - but here’s a chance to turn that tide back.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 05:29 PMEr, the ‘Gaeltacht Quarter’ is not situated in the lower Falls so wtf is Newt on about? I also think his comments about whatever somebody’s predecessor said about the Robert McCartney case are a total irrelevance. Apart from that he has a point.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 05:30 PM“Were you there Gregory? It seems that neither you nor Newt would allow ignorance to get in the way of an ill informed rant. “
I think Gerry has no need for my kind,
it’s been a while since we had the back of the bus blacks flown over to Holy Cross or Garvaghy or whatever. No longer on my dime.
I did have a copy of his speech though. In time of old, taigs were forbidde to own a bicycle worth more than a fiver, and smallbox blankets cross-infected the noble spud.
[Keep it to what you have verifiable evidence for - otherwise you may take this as a yellow card - mods]
So blah to Big Brother No1
G.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 05:52 PMHere’s the map picador: http://url.ie/dy6. That looks like Lower Falls to me.
Posted by on May 16, 2008 @ 06:01 PM
