Working collectively to tackle problems

By Gerry Kelly
Last Friday my party colleague Carál Ní Chuilín and I hosted a meeting at Holy Cross hall to discuss how best to tackle together some of the difficulties which face the people of Ardoyne.
There were representatives at the meeting from local residents groups as well as youth, community and interface workers, local priests and school principals.
Representatives of the Irish government were there too along with all the statutory bodies, which have responsibility to deliver services in Ardoyne.
This included the Housing Executive, social services, Belfast City Council, the fire and ambulance services and the police.
There was a huge amount of experience in the hall, many of those present have been at the coal face tackling the area’s many problems.
These range from poverty, neglect, deprivation, women’s issues and educational underachievement to anti-social behaviour, crime, interfaces and community safety.
What was clear right from the outset of the meeting was the enormous goodwill to work together to tackle these difficulties collectively and build on the achievements and the hard work that goes in day and daily to help make the area a better place to live in for all.
A collective structured approach has helped to improve the quality of life in other parts of this city, including North Belfast, and we must ensure that it works too for the people of Ardoyne.
Only our combined efforts can ensure that resources and experience are pulled together to bring the maximum benefit to the lives of local people.
Clearly there is much to be done.
Successive unionist and British governments have failed communities like Ardoyne, deprivation, neglect and poverty has spanned three generations in the area.
What is required now is leadership from across all those groups, which attended the meeting to confront these issues head on.
While there is a clear role for the PSNI in tackling issues such as criminality, drugs, anti-social behaviour and interfaces it is also my view that you can’t just police away deprivation, poverty or the legacy of systematic discrimination.
It’s also my opinion that the community has a pivotal role in the months ahead to ensure the safety of our children and our neighbours’ children.
It’s vital that we do all in our power to keep them out of the criminal justice system but also beyond the influence of those who would exploit them for their own selfish ends.
Working collectively to tackle all these problems and their causes by pooling all our experience and resources is a radical, positive and progressive approach.
It is very different from the top down initiatives, which have failed in the past.
This is also a time to move forward on building on the contacts between all the communities who live in North Belfast.
Poverty and deprivation and the social issues which flow from them recognise no barriers and we must work with all those prepared to tackle these problems no matter where they appear.
It’s vital therefore that we build on the pledges made at Friday’s meeting.
To that end we have organised a recall meeting for May 8 to build on the momentum achieved in last week’s Ardoyne Hall meeting.
We can make a difference if we remember that problems, which affect the whole community can only be resolved by the whole community.

Election

Once again we are in the mouth of an election campaign.
Our Northern MEP Bairbre de Brún is once again the party’s flagbearer in the Six Counties.
However, we are the only party standing candidates in every constituency in Ireland, and we are also contesting local government elections in the 26 Counties, and we want to maximize the Sinn Féin vote right across the country.
We are asking people to come out to defend the Peace Process and vote for progress and change and a peaceful democratic transition to a United Ireland.
In Europe at EU level we are the only party on this island to put the interests of the Irish people first, our rural communities, the environment and fighting for European funding for our community sector and our people’s prosperity.
Mar sin vótáil de Brún uinhir a haon ar 4ú Meitheamh!