Opinion

Often more attractive to find quick solutions than to examine the causes

Anti-social behaviour has been dominating west Belfast headlines and social media sites in recent months, with a particular focus on Dunville and Falls Parks.

Young people have been gathering on street corners, at shop fronts and other public spaces for generations – it’s nothing new. However, when it ends in assaults, criminal damage and attacks on cars and houses then it should quite rightly be condemned and solutions sought.

However, we need to be clear about what we identify as anti-social behaviour and make sure that the answers we propose don’t end up making the problem worse.

It is always more attractive to try and find a quick ‘solution’ to the consequences rather than taking time to examine the causes. Are we in danger of doing that when it comes to young people’s behaviour? 

West Belfast has got problems – big problems. Nearly half the population over 16 are in receipt of some form of benefits. We have the second highest levels of unemployment in Northern Ireland and even then, 17 per cent of local people who have jobs need to claim Employment and Support Allowances because their jobs are dangerously low paid. In some parts of west Belfast that figure rises to more than 22 per cenet in Clonard and more than 26 per cent in the Lower Falls.

More than one fifth of west Belfast teenagers leave school with less than five high grade GCSEs. More than 40 per cent of children in west Belfast live in low income families. – the highest levels in Northern Ireland. We have the third highest crime levels and the third highest incidents of anti-social behaviour.  Can we really pretend that all these facts are not related? 

When we propose solutions to anti-social behaviour, we can’t ignore the context and the causes. This is not just a matter for the PSNI, we all have a role to play – but it must be a thoughtful and positive one. Much good work is being doing by local youth leaders, most of it in their own time. Their interventions on the ground are constructive and helpful toward young people and their work is characterised by timely interventions and experience of working with teenagers and adolescents. They need our support.

Young people need to socialise, they need to meet with others of their own age and interests. We can’t simply close parks and cordon off public spaces hoping that the problem will go away. The actual amount of anti-social behaviour is relatively small given that one third of the west Belfast population is aged between 15 and 24. 

Supporting those who know what they are doing and addressing the long-term causes of this type of behaviour is a much more constructive approach than some that have been tried.

Very often, the people who make the most noise about anti-social behaviour demonise teenagers and point the finger at the police are the ones who make the least effort in ensuring better prospects for the young people involved.

JOANNE LOWRY


Workers Party, West Belfast

Pro-Brexit vote will make hard border unavoidable

Gerry Carroll (February 8) speaks up for ‘our migrant brothers and sisters’. An admirable sentiment.  He also empathises with those who are ‘ground down by the increased cost of living’. More sterling socialist virtue signalling. How, then, can one who feels so strongly about migrants vote for Brexit, the main aim of which was to reduce immigration or, better still, stop it altogether? How can he claim concern for working people, particularly the working poor, yet vote for a policy that will lead not merely to increased prices but to shortages of food and medicines?

The answer lies in Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell’s satire on hard-left totalitarianism, and its concept of ‘doublethink’: ‘a loyal willingness to say that black is white when party discipline demands this… the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them’. Gerry condemns poverty.  Brexit will increase poverty. But party discipline is pro-Brexit, so Gerry is pro-Brexit, even though it will increase poverty. Doublethink.  

That is why Gerry can express solidarity for migrants, while voting to reduce immigration, why he can stand up for working people, while voting for a Brexit that will bring not merely hardship but misery to those same working people. 


I have no doubt that when the now all but inevitable hard border is built Gerry will be there, in his fetching yellow pinny to protest against the hard border that his pro-Brexit vote will have made unavoidable, yet genuinely not see his own double standards.

Gerry may be nice in his concern for migrants and the working poor, but his every pronounced and protest must now be judged against his support for Brexit – the most racist, toxic, economically harmful  phenomenon of recent history.

CECILIA KENNEDY


Belfast BT9

Therapy will not alter gay lifestyles

The LGBT demonstrators outside Townsend Street Presbyterian Church on Valentine’s Day should be congratulated. All evidence shows that ‘gay conversion therapy’ doesn’t work and is dangerous. Available evidence suggests that attempts to change a person’s sexual orientation results in high levels of mental health problems, suicide attempts and self-harm. In a survey on the subject conducted by the Church or England, which attracted 4,600 gay responses, of these 458 said they tried to become straight, 91 attempted suicide and 22 had been forced to have sex with someone of the opposite sex. Almost all said it was a horrific experience.

To my mind ‘gay conversion therapy’ is little different to ‘exorcism’, the casting out of so-called demons. Schizophrenia and bipolar disorders are the usual candidate for a false diagnosis of possession of demons and the treatment has the same terrible effect as gay conversion therapy.

Gay people are born gay, they don’t chose that lifestyle and no amount of praying, therapy or anything else will alter that fact. 

ANDY BARR


Bangor, Co Down

Divisive warmongers

The absurd claim made in The Irish News editorial (February 12) that there would be relief at the discovery of the lost statues depicting William of Orange and Oliver Cromwell just shows how out of touch this newspaper is with the vast majority of its readership. The legacy of this Dutch invader can still be seen on the streets of our towns and cities even today, and it is one of animosity and division.

The exploits of that evil tyrant Cromwell don’t need explaining and to suggest because he was part of Irish history his statue should be erected in a place of prominence is nothing short of appalling. Adolf Hitler was part of Polish history. Can you image telling the good people of Warsaw that a long-lost effigy of dear Adolf should be given a prominent place in their city?

The words, nearest bridge, and head first, spring to mind no.

These two divisive warmongers should not be on public display anywhere in this country.


Surely somewhere in Co Clare there must be potholes to be filled.

J DIAMOND


Coleraine, Co Derry