‘Translink rakes in £172m in fares – but half have a free ticket to ride’. This somewhat offensive headline in The Irish News on September 28 ignores a few facts.
Concession fares are not free, they are paid for by government and are an important part of Translink’s revenue stream without which services would have to be cut, leading to isolation, overcrowding and higher fares for everyone.
Many beneficiaries of the concession have spent decades contributing to the economy in times of hardship far beyond the experience of the young and middle aged: basic rate tax as high as 41 per cent, interest rates of 17 per cent and inflation of 16 per cent in the 1970s. The disabled make an important contribution in the workplace.
Mahatma Gandhi said “the true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members”. The elderly and disabled do not deserve to be regarded as freeloaders – they deserve respect for what they have contributed and dignity when they can no longer do so.
Dermot McNally
Castlerock, Co Derry
Belfast’s future deserves to be properly planned
Belfast today is a different place and what remains of its architecture has to be admired and maintained. Even with the wartime blitz, the Troubles, property speculation and scandalous dereliction, some wonderful buildings still exist.
On February 12 2021 a new online tour to celebrate Belfast 1930s and art deco architecture was launched. It welcomed a memory of Sir Charles Edward Bainbridge Brett (1928-2005), better known simply as Charlie Brett. He was a Belfast solicitor by profession but had a lifelong interest in architectural history of Belfast.
In his early years he came to love Belfast. He set about the task of rectifying the deficiency and explore its architecture. His appearance on television displayed Ulster’s building traditions to people who had never consciously noticed such things before.
The Irish News has been a good platform for informing its readers in their property page of future developments in the city; the good, the bad and the ugly. A recent singular case in point, the proposed redevelopment of the late Delaney’s Restaurant site on the corner where Lombard Street and Rosemary Street meet. A beautiful landmark site. Another assault on an art deco building.
In the late 1960s redevelopment, there was a complete lack of concern with knocking chunks out of the city and its unprotected heritage. It was then Brett got involved in the foundation of the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society and was its president from 1979 to his death. He became the leading authority on the history of the built environment in the north of Ireland and was opinionated and witty when he came to describe buildings, After all, old places have soul.
A socialist, he was appalled by the sectarian politics which he felt disgraced the Protestant community he was born into. He joined the north of Ireland Labour Party and was chairman for five years. He challenged the unionist dominance. However, he despaired of ever seeing a socialist solution to the intractably sectarian problems, and left the NILP. Later he was chairman of the north of Ireland Housing Executive. A role that added to his reputation as a formidable proponent and opponent.
Brett voiced an opinion about the ESB headquarters in Dublin, built in the 1960s. This development created controversy as a parade of Georgian houses were cleared out to make way for it, which resulted in the encroachment of Dublin’s “Georgian mile” and was one of the worst crimes committed against Dublin’s historic core. This brought about an awareness for later redevelopments in Dublin, which unfortunately fell blind to Belfast.
On a positive note, however, whilst the city continued to lose irreplaceable elements of its historic fabric, the restoration of the former Bank Buildings after being damaged by fire in 2018 embraced the challenge of protecting the city’s architectural fabric. Belfast’s future deserves to be properly planned, not simply allowed to happen in the error-filled ways of the past years.
James G Barry
Templelogue, Dublin 6
Scientists’ findings unearth key differences
Scientists from the Department of Traditional Bigotry in coalition with the TGRG (Tartan Gang Research Group) and APSC (Association for the Protection of Stereotypes and Caricatures) have unearthed (no pun intended) a minefield of information.
Examining human remains exhumed from diverse cemeteries throughout Northern Ireland, it was found that among different denominational groups, numerous stereotypes proved to be surprisingly accurate (much to the annoyance of well-meaning do-gooding types). The researchers have subsequently warned that these findings are tentative and that they may offend moderate, middle-class patronisers residing in safe ghettos such as the Malone Road and Stranmillis area.
A key finding relates to binocular PD, ie the distance between the centre of the pupil of one eye and centre of the pupil in the other eye. It was found that mostly, key differences emerged. Many people who grew up in NI often testified you could define members of the other religion by their eyes being too close together.
Further detailed research enabled analysis of subtle vocal chord differences among children regarding street games. It was found Catholic children used the terms ‘cheesers’ and Protestant children ‘conkers’, and Catholic’s ‘taws’ and Protestants ‘marbles’. One researcher is addressing the possibility that these verbal discrepancies prompted the long forgotten Lurgan taw/marble, cheeser/conker riots of 1952. A further difference emerged related directly to theology. It was found that when reciting the Lord’s Prayer, Catholics would utter “who art in heaven”, while Protestants say “which art in heaven”. The which/who decision, it is posited, is made biologically due to the function of the tongue during articulation and the related shape of the airway. Like many research approaches, interesting issues arise. One complication occurred when it was found that often remains analysed did not concur with the majority norm, ie Catholics who used the term marbles, Protestants who used the term taws. This is thought to be a result of people having ‘torned’ at marriage when biologically it was too late for physical adaptation (‘torned’... turned/converted).
Tony Carton
Lisburn, Co Antrim
