Tuesday 24 March 2009

Protest Organised

Students have organised a protest to be held on Thursday 26th March at the QUB gates.

A text message is circulating...

"SAY NO TO POLICE VIOLENCE! Student protest on Thur 26th mar at 5pm at qub gates. We demand- proper student acomodation, no2riot police n holylands, no xpulsions due 2 stpaddys day and more support fro unions. Be there 2get ur voice heard! Forward to any students in holylands."

The Gown would like to get the views and opinions of students on this proposed event.

21 comments:

CiarnánHelferty said...

As a fair bit of the literature which has been distributed concerns the response of the Students' Union (and me in particular) and so I would like to invite anyone who has arranged this demo to debate the issues in an around the events of St Patricks day.

We can invite students - have the debate and then take question from the floor.

Please email su.president@qub.ac.uk if you would be interested.

Ciarnan Helferty
President QUBSU

Anonymous said...

Why do the police think they can just walk into our area and interfere with our celebration of St. Patrick and our identity. If the sectarian SS/RUC/PSNI had not shown up I think everyone would have had a better time.

As for the "residents" students have long put up with rapes, thefts and car burnings from them as the Gown has revealed before. Even on the same night as these 'riots' several shots were fired at a house in the Holylands area and this recieved minimal press coverage.

Anonymous said...

I wonder how much the holyland events had to do with identity and how much they had to do with anti-social behaviour just for the sake of it

Personally I would be worried if identity was the main issue (which it might well have been) because that sounds a bit too much like times gone past. If the PSNI is sectarian - which it might be - were the St Patricks day events also sectarian?

Anonymous said...

Get a grip. As if we students don't look bad enough already, now we're going to blame the drunken violence on the PSNI?

The PSNI can't be blamed, in whole or in part, because they have a duty to restore public order and protect other residents.

If this self-centred inconsiderate "protest" takes place you can be sure that the reputation of students as a whole will be tarnished.

@ Michael Wittman - the sectarian police??? The STUDENTS were shouting IRA slogans, in case you didn't hear.

Anonymous said...

Well said Ciarnan.

It's time those filthy socialists were obliterated.

Daniel O'Boyle wasn't so mouthy about his left wing tendancies when he was lookin' votes a few weeks ago.

Anonymous said...

Those organising this protest should reflect on the reputation which they are giving students.

Anonymous said...

The protest should be allowed for freedom of speech, however the idiots who are running it will have zero support
The demands are ridiculous - students are already one of the worst parasites for gov money, they destroy their own accomodation
In any case looks like there will be no expulsions, big surprise
The very idea that unions should get involved is ridiculous
I would laugh at the text if it was not so worryingly ignorant

Anonymous said...

"Why do the police think they can just walk into our area and interfere with our celebration of St. Patrick and our identity."

I'd love to know when the Holylands became "your area". That sentence makes it sound like a nationalist camp and not an area of a city.

Belfast is moving forward, we see this with things like the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, the Belfast Film Festival and many other events.

I consider myself to have nationalist sympathies, but I'd never stoop so low as saying that drinking (to the point of being part of a drunken mob) in the street was part of my "identity".

Yes to freedom of speech and expression, no to being completely stupid.

If a group of spides were drinking in the street in any other part of the town they'd be dealt with by the police... just because these spides are students and believe themselves to be celebrating something doesn't make any difference.

Again, to Michael Wittman: you are laughable. If you're "celebrating" St Patrick then you're celebrating the introduction of Christianity to Ireland. Does Christianity not teach moderation?

belfast samizdat said...

"Why do the police think they can just walk into our area and interfere with our celebration of St. Patrick and our identity."

I admire "Michael Wittman's" honesty. He sees the Holyland as "our area". One might ask what happened to the community that used to live there.

"our identity"

Is it any wonder I'm ashamed to be Irish?

It's not residents, but "residents". The people who actually live there are, well, non-people.

Residents do not rape students. as the Amnesty survey made clear rape is endemic within the student body and fully endorsed by 48% of male undergraduates.

As last Tuesday showed us, it is not just residents that wreck cars.

No shots were fired at a house in the Holyland area. Three shots were fired in Cooke St, Lower Ormeau, apparently in connection with dissident republicans.

That the poster known as "Michael Wittman" chooses the name of a Waffen SS tank commander as his moniker makes my latest blog article all the more relevant.

I welcome this protest. I'm all for freedom of speech and have every desire to see the true sentiments of the student body made clear.

Alan Murray

http://holylandswarzone.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

I don't think this protest is a good idea at all - I really don't get what the police were supposed to do...

Fair enough, riot shields - there's no doubt theres something quite provocative about that - but let's not forget that this is a two way thing. The people that WERE provoked by the riot police were obviously going to be provoked anyway...

What were the police supposed to do if they weren't going to use riot gear? Would you stand there in plain uniform while stones and bottles were being thrown at you? Wouldn't you prefer a helmet and a shield? I know I would.

Digusted at the socialists, who just jump on anything anti-establishment, no matter what the facts are. And the facts are, students were involved in what happened on St. Paddy's.

Ciarnan I would actually be in favour of having the debate too but I really doubt that these guys will actually show up lest they be destroyed verbally.

nineteensixtyseven said...

Idiots. They're just about to raise fees on us all and this is what you protest about?!

Anonymous said...

Students are pig ignorant and selfish, how dare you think you own the holyland as young people. You have no resepect for yourselves or the places you live you are a disgrace to the University you attened

Anonymous said...

Wonder how its going? (posted at 5.04)

Also, gown team, have you verified the eejit's faux-statistic that almost every other male apparently enjoys a bit of rape here and there? Seems like he has taken something wildly out of context.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

Bloody twats. Get an education.

Anonymous said...

"Students are pig ignorant and selfish, how dare you think you own the holyland as young people. You have no resepect for yourselves or the places you live you are a disgrace to the University you attened"

At least students attend university and can spell.

Paddy Savage said...

Residents do not rape students. as the Amnesty survey made clear rape is endemic within the student body and fully endorsed by 48% of male undergraduates.

--------------------------

That's an absolutely disgusting comment. To use such an issue to try to slur the name of a group of tens of thousands is disgraceful.

As for the protest, it was a poorly attended joke.

Anonymous said...

"as the Amnesty survey made clear rape is endemic within the student body and fully endorsed by 48% of male undergraduates."

This sounds like a completely false statistic, if it were true that almost half of male students "fully endorse" rape surely there would be a much higher rate of sexual assaults involving male students. I know that all of the students I know would be disgusted at the idea of condoning rape.

Chris Gaskin said...

How sad to see Paddy Savage throwing his support behind the forces of Occupation in our Island.

When I was at Queen's Paddy could have been relied upon as a staunch soldier of freedom. Now he's bought into the establishment in pursuit of his career.

Very, very sad.

Erin Go Brach.

belfast samizdat said...

"This sounds like a completely false statistic, if it were true that almost half of male students "fully endorse" rape surely there would be a much higher rate of sexual assaults"

They go unreported.

See this article:-

http://www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=17890

And this one:-

http://holylandswarzone.blogspot.com/2008/10/rape.html

http://holylandswarzone.blogspot.com/

Alan Murray

Anonymous said...

Michael Wittman is a fool, though still not as foolish as Queen's management