19 June 1997 Edition
Receivers close Irish centre
Last week's An Phoblacht highlighted the plight of Liverpool's Irish community who have been threatened with the closure of their centre in Mount Pleasant in the city.
In the latest development on Wednesday 18 June a court order was issued in favour of the receiver telling the Centre's Chairperson Sheila Coleman that she must leave the premises. Within hours of the order being issued ``heavies'' who would not identify themselves, and backed up by the police, moved in.
Said Coleman, ``they have thrown the belongings of some young people from Ireland who stay here on to the street and the police are acting very aggressively towards them''.
Now Coleman and the centre's coordinator, Kevin Williams, are refusing to leave the premises and as we go to press they are waiting to see just what lengths the receivers will go to in order to remove them from their centre.
With the police and the ``heavies'' surrounding the Centre representatives of Liverpool's Black community gathered at the scene to demonstrate their solidarity with the centre.
``The Liverpool Irish Centre had in the past number of years been a place where ethnic and community groups could gather in an atmosphere free from prejudice,'' Coleman said. ``I don't know what way this will end, but we won't let the police get away with trying to criminalise our community''.
In the latest development on Wednesday 18 June a court order was issued in favour of the receiver telling the Centre's Chairperson Sheila Coleman that she must leave the premises. Within hours of the order being issued ``heavies'' who would not identify themselves, and backed up by the police, moved in.
Said Coleman, ``they have thrown the belongings of some young people from Ireland who stay here on to the street and the police are acting very aggressively towards them''.
Now Coleman and the centre's coordinator, Kevin Williams, are refusing to leave the premises and as we go to press they are waiting to see just what lengths the receivers will go to in order to remove them from their centre.
With the police and the ``heavies'' surrounding the Centre representatives of Liverpool's Black community gathered at the scene to demonstrate their solidarity with the centre.
``The Liverpool Irish Centre had in the past number of years been a place where ethnic and community groups could gather in an atmosphere free from prejudice,'' Coleman said. ``I don't know what way this will end, but we won't let the police get away with trying to criminalise our community''.