Opinion

Alex Kane: When I lived in the Holylands there was a sense of respect that has now gone

Alex Kane

Alex Kane

Alex Kane is an Irish News columnist and political commentator and a former director of communications for the Ulster Unionist Party.

The Holylands area has become infamous for anti-social behaviour caused by drink-fuelled students descending on the area
The Holylands area has become infamous for anti-social behaviour caused by drink-fuelled students descending on the area The Holylands area has become infamous for anti-social behaviour caused by drink-fuelled students descending on the area

When I was at Queen's in the mid-1970s (I know, you can't believe I'm that old) I had many friends living in and around the Holylands.

It was still a largely residential area: long-established families, university staff (some with children), young professionals (banks and civil service) starting their careers in the centre of Belfast and students. It was a nice mix. I lived in Fitzroy Avenue for a year: the neighbours on both sides were families with babies and I still remember their mothers occasionally stopping us in the street to apologise for the noise at night time and during the early hours.

Our landlord lived across the road, a few doors down towards the Ormeau Road. He had bought the house a couple of years earlier when the previous owner - a widow - had died. He did some work and rented it out. At the end of every month he would pop in to make sure 'everything is under control' and sometimes do a few running repairs. Quite often he brought a bottle of Bushmills and shared it with us. It was a perfect relationship.

I don't remember big, noisy street parties. I'm not pretending that we were abstemious angels who did nothing but work hard and go to bed early. We weren't and didn't. We had house parties. We sometimes invited the neighbours. We didn't allow music to blare out into the small hours. We never had an open door approach. You had to ring the doorbell and be known to at least one of us who lived in the house. We cleared up in the morning, removing any bottles, glasses, tins or debris that had been left on the front path or pavement. We didn't leave bins sitting around for days on end.

I think the difference between now and then was that there was a very clear sense of respect for each other and the area itself. It was a lovely place to live. Neatly tended front gardens. People looking after the houses because they either owned them or were in long-term rental arrangements. Students looking after them because they enjoyed living there. A few local landlords and rental agencies who took a personal, rather than merely financial interest in the properties. Crucially, a long-established community of families and residents who welcomed the presence of students. It had the feel of a village.

All that has gone. There are now thousands of students crammed into what are known as 'houses of multiple occupancy'; but which should be better understood as cash cows for a variety of landlords. The residential community that I remember has gone. Some because the area has lost the charm and safety it was once noted for. I met my former landlord a few years ago and he told me that he and a few others had just been priced out of the market. Younger professionals couldn't afford to move in, either, because of the prices and within a few years they didn't want to move in anyway.

I'm not saying, by the way, that the majority of modern students are feckless drunks who don't give a damn about other people and property. Many of them have ended up in the Holylands because there is nowhere else for them to find accommodation; yet they live there peacefully and without taking part in the mass street parties and casual vandalism. But there is a hard core minority who seem to think that it's ok to behave badly. And to that hard core is added thousands of others who drift in from other parts of Belfast and further afield to do, as one resident said to me, "whatever they damn well feel like doing."

My eldest daughter is at an English university. She lives in an area which is predominantly student populated. Yet it is nothing like the Holylands when it comes to Freshers Week, public holidays, weekends and regular on-street drinking. She has friends at other English and Scottish universities: lots of students crammed into small areas, yet without an equivalent of the Holylands.

There is a particular problem with the Holylands and just about everyone acknowledges that fact. Yet no one seems capable of addressing, let alone resolving the problem. That's a pity. It was a once beautiful place. It deserves to be rescued.