ACOMSDave

Community Journalist

Belfast Listed Buildings

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Belfast Listed Buildings

On Saturday, February 22, 2025, the Belfast Telegraph (Sam McQuade) published a compelling piece titled “Belfast is a great city, but swathes of it are crumbling…”, in this he is referring to our listed buildings in the main, but by inference to the general state of Belfast.

The article boiled down to two main ideas:

1. Belfast’s crumbling buildings and neglected areas
2. Why do the authorities seem powerless to halt the decay?

Like many cities, Belfast has always been a hub of change, shaped by shifts in population, employment, and development. Yes, our history is marked by the Troubles, which devastated both people and infrastructure. But Belfast has shown resilience, bouncing back with new developments like Castle Court, the Victoria Centre, and the Waterfront. Still, vast parts of the city remain overlooked, opportunities lost.

Take, for example, the area between the Short Strand and the Lagan, or the Tribecca site between Donegall Street, Rosemary Street, and Royal Avenue. I’m not here to rewrite the article, but what struck me most was the missed opportunities—funding sitting idle in bank accounts for years, generating interest, while nothing materialises on the ground.

The planning department seems to lack a clear, coherent strategy to preserve what heritage remains. Meanwhile, politicians at Stormont appear to play at politics, failing repeatedly to safeguard Belfast’s history, its fabric, and its future.

Then there’s the case of the Victorian houses in the University area, recommended for listed status as of March 15, 2025. They’re interesting, no doubt, but what really caught my attention was the broader context: Northern Ireland currently has 9,000 listed buildings, yet this is only the second survey since 1974—that’s 51 years between checks. That’s simply too long.

Some experts understand the intricacies of our listed building process better than I do, but even I can see that without a cohesive, forward-thinking plan—beyond mere politics—the gaps in protecting our city’s heritage are glaring.

Belfast Listed BuildingsBelfast Listed Buildings Belfast Listed Buildings Belfast Listed Buildings

 

 

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Conversion Therapy – Rethink Finally

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The Growing Movement to Ban Conversion Therapy

 

 

Earlier this month I wrote an article (Gay Conversion Therapy – Government Cop Out) reflecting back on how long we have been raising this issue and why was the government dragging its feet over putting in place measure to stop young LGBTQ people from being mentally tortured?

I reflected back on Dr Paul Miller, on Stormont’s intransigence, and how the Westminster bullies (those in a position of power and trust) seemed to feel that LGBTQ people do not count and do not need to be protected.

So I welcome that the Northern Ireland Executive is going to take the lead and develop a strategy across a number of Departments to have legislation put in place to place a ban on reparative or conversion therapy by private operations.

As I said in my previous article, conversion therapy is nothing short of ‘brain washing’, the LGBTQ community and the people in it do not need to be converted, they need to be made to feel equal within society in all aspects! 

Raising Equality (US) - Openclipart

 

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Gay Conversion Therapy – Government Cop Out

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In June 2013, I wrote a short piece on Dr Paul Miller MD DMH MRC Psych as he had hit the headlines due to his ability to ‘cure’ gays through ‘Gay Conversion Therapy’.  Also, his close connections to ex-Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Iris Robinson.

Why am I re-raising this again you may ask; well I was reading some old Hansards’ and came across a report on Dr Miller talking to a

NORTHERN IRELAND ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE FOR HEALTH, SOCIAL SERVICES AND PUBLIC SAFETY

where he was talking about suicide and in particular with young men.  He also made reference to his Christian beliefs in this report.  He outlined all his experience and qualifications – which  to a layman seem to be very exhaustive.

Now back to today, Dr Miller is Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychogeriatrician. Clinical Lead and Responsible Officer at Mirabilis Health which is based in Glengormley.  A recent report (Announced Care Inspection Report 27 March 2017) from The Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority found no issues with the establishment and the 12 patients who submitted questionnaire responses indicated that the service is well managed.

Now the therapy system that Dr Miller uses is:

EMDR therapy is broken down into eight different phases, so you’ll need to attend multiple sessions. Treatment usually takes about 12 separate sessions.

Phase 1: History and treatment planning

Your therapist will first review your history and decide where you are in the treatment process. This evaluation phase also includes talking about your trauma and identifying potential traumatic memories to treat specifically.

Phase 2: Preparation

Your therapist will then help you learn several different ways to cope with the emotional or psychological stress you’re experiencing.

Stress management techniques such as deep breathing and mindfulness may be used.

Phase 3: Assessment

During the third phase of EMDR treatment, your therapist will identify the specific memories that will be targeted and all the associated components (such as the physical sensations that are stimulated when you concentrate on an event) for each target memory.

Phases 4-7: Treatment

Your therapist will then begin using EMDR therapy techniques to treat your targeted memories. During these sessions, you will be asked to focus on a negative thought, memory, or image.

Your therapist will simultaneously have you do specific eye movements. The bilateral stimulation may also include taps or other movements mixed in, depending on your case.

After the bilateral stimulation, your therapist will ask you to let your mind go blank and notice the thoughts and feelings you’re having spontaneously. After you identify these thoughts, your therapist may have you refocus on that traumatic memory, or move on to another.

If you become distressed, your therapist will help bring you back to the present before moving on to another traumatic memory. Over time, the distress over particular thoughts, images, or memories should start to fade.

Phase 8: Evaluation

In the final phase, you’ll be asked to evaluate your progress after these sessions. Your therapist will do the same.

I am not saying EMDR is not successful, EMDR therapy has proven to be very effective in the treatment of PTSD for instance, however as being gay is not a medical condition, and possibly using it as a form of Gay Conversion treatment of ‘gays’ it would seem more like a version of brainwashing.

Brainwashing - Gay Conversion Therapy

Now the LGBT community has been fighting for gay conversion therapy to be banned in the UK.  Indeed in 2018, then-prime minister Theresa May’s LGBT action plan said the government would bring forward proposals to “end the practice of conversion therapy” as a priority; however the current Conservative equalities minister Kemi Badenoch says the so-called therapy is a ‘very complex issue’ and the department was unable to produce a timetable for any legislation or forthcoming consultation.

Westminster and Gay Conversion Therapy
Conservative Government Cop Out

Research

Belfast psychiatrist Miller to face cash dealings probe – Headline from 18 April 2013

The ‘gay cure’ experiments that were written out of scientific history

Treatments of homosexuality in Britain since the 1950s—an oral history: the experience of patients

Conversion Therapy

The cruel, dangerous reality of gay conversion therapy

Gay Conversion Therapy’s Disturbing 19th-Century Origins

I tried gay conversion therapy and it was my own horror film

UK government hasn’t banned gay conversion therapy two years after pledge to end practice

EMDR Therapy: What You Need to Know

Tory peer in Lords attempt to secure Northern Ireland gay pardons – Belfast Newsletter

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Jeff-Dudgeon-MBE-gay pardons legislation

Jeff Dudgeon’s MBE comments re challenges to gay pardons legislation


A response from Jeff Dudgeon, in respect of the claim that Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 makes this problematic.
‘This, in my view, is an absolute  ridiculous argument. I wrote the amendments in such a way that they do not relate to the “sexual orientation” of a person convicted or cautioned. Both the pardons and the disregard scheme will be available to any “person” who has been convicted or cautioned. In respect of the main offences involved, that means: any person who has been convicted or cautioned for the offence of buggery (involving either opposite-sex or same-sex sexual acts); any person convicted or cautioned for the offence of gross indecency (this can only be same-sex acts because the offence only related to men). The term “gay pardons” is therefore misleading because the pardons will extend to any “person” (man or woman) falling within the ambit of the old law. There is no “discrimination” here!’
As you can see this proposed amendment is ‘fair to all’, and we believe that it should be passed…

The Lords and Gay Pardons LegisltionAn attempt to pardon men convicted in Northern Ireland before homosexuality was decriminalised has been launched in the House of Lords – but a QC has said that the proposal could be unlawful under equality law.

Source: Tory peer in Lords attempt to secure Northern Ireland gay pardons – Belfast Newsletter

Equality in Marriage Blocked Again

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Government is put in place to govern, that we can all accept.  However it is supposedly done on the basis of consent and democracy.  Government is supposed to listen to the electorate (not just at ballot and election time) but throughout the duration of its time in office!  In consequence, I would draw First Minister Arlene Foster’s attention to the Mori poll published in the Belfast Telegraph in June of this year,  which shows that 70% of the electorate agrees with gay marriage. (Survey shows 70% support for same-sex marriages in Northern Ireland) – this poll clearly  indicates that the electorate has moved on, and that gay marriage is acceptable.  How much longer will the DUP continue to bury not just its head, but its whole body in the sand about what is a right – this is about equality and fairness.  Dave McFarlane, Community JournalistEquality for all

Attempts to introduce same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland are set to be thwarted for at least another five years after the Democratic Unionists insisted they would continue to block a

Source: First Minister Arlene Foster vows to continue blocking attempts to introduce same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland – BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

Is religion ever going to give LGBT Students a break?

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Editorial:  I have reprinted this article from the Advocate as it shows why keeping schools separate from religion is a necessity, and why the government in Northern Ireland should take heed and remove the various religious inputs that they keep ensuring.  I accept that religion and belief is a right for everyone that wishes to follow one, but not at the expense of other peoples (and in this case LGBT students) well being and safety!

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There has been a spike in requests for waivers from compliance with federal nondiscrimination requirements.

BY TRUDY RING
DECEMBER 06 2015 8:00 AM EST

 
With the expansion of LGBT rights, there has been a spike in the number of religiously affiliated colleges and universities seeking exemptions from federal antidiscrimination laws.
Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 forbids sex discrimination at any educational institution that receives federal funding, which most do in some form, be it research grants or student financial aid. But it allows any school “controlled by a religious organization” to apply for a waiver from the nondiscrimination requirement if complying with Title IX “would not be consistent with the religious tenets of such organization.”
“These ‘right-to-discriminate’ waivers were relatively rare until the last year,” reports The Column, a Minnesota-based nonprofit LGBT news site, with “a handful” of schools seeking them to avoid putting women in leadership positions. But in 2014, the U.S. Department of Education held that Title IX’s ban on sex discrimination also banned discrimination against transgender and gender-nonconforming people, leading many more schools to apply for waivers. Also, the spread of marriage equality, now nationwide after June’s Supreme Court ruling, has conservative institutions worried they would be required to treat married same-sex couples the same as opposite-sex ones — in access to student housing, for instance.
In the past 18 months, the Department of Education has granted 27 colleges and universities waivers from Title IX compliance, The Column reports. The schools are located throughout the nation, but the majority are in the South and West. Their combined enrollment exceeds 80,000, and in 2014 they received nearly $130 million in federal research grants and student aid. As of August of this year, another nine such waivers were pending.
The schools that have been granted the exemptions include Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, Franciscan University of Steubenville in Ohio, Judson College in Alabama, East Texas Baptist University, Oklahoma Christian University, Spring Arbor University in Michigan, and Simpson University in California. Those with waivers pending include Biola University in California, Colorado Christian University, Ohio Christian University, and Multnomah University in Portland.
Some schools have sought the waivers so they could bar or expel transgender students, and some have targeted lesbian, gay, and bisexual students and staff as well, reports the site, which obtained the data through a Freedom of Information Act request. Many of them have used a sample policy by the Christian Legal Society.
“The trend of religiously affiliated, but publicly financed, colleges receiving exemptions from the U.S. Department of Education in order to discriminate against LGBTQ students and employees is disturbing,” attorney Paul Southwick, who has represented students in discrimination suits, told The Column. “While we are seeing increased protections for transgender, intersex, and LGB students through Title IX, we are also seeing the protections of Title IX gutted at the very institutions where students need those protections the most.”
This is recourse, however, Southwick said. He suggested that students or staff who have experienced discrimination file an internal appeal, with the help of a lawyer if possible. “Additionally, students should file a Title IX complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights,” he said. “This is important and should always be done. Even if their college has a religious exemption from Title IX, the exemption may not apply or it may not stick after being challenged.

Gay marriage is a matter for Stormont

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16:52Tuesday 01 December 2015
Same Sex MarriageSame-sex marriage in Northern Ireland is for Stormont to decide on, the Attorney General told a court today.
John Larkin QC described it as an issue of “pure social policy” that should be left with the devolved administration.
His assessment came in proceedings brought by a gay couple whose marriage has no legal recognition in their native Northern Ireland.
The two men claim that being limited to civil partnership status within the region amounts to unlawful discrimination.
They are seeking a landmark declaration that their marriage remains fully constituted throughout the UK.
Granted anonymity in the case, the petitioner ‘X’ and his husband wed in London last year.
But under current laws they can only be classified as civil partners in Northern Ireland.
Legislation passed in the rest of the the UK and the Irish Republic allows same-sex couples to marry.
Last month Stormont voted in favour of the same change in law for the first time.
However, the Democratic Unionists blocked it by deploying a mechanism requiring the proposal to achieve a cross-community majority.
The petition, backed by gay rights group The Rainbow Project, has been taken against the Northern Ireland Assembly and the UK Government.
In first case of its kind counsel for X and his husband claimed their marriage has been “demeaned, devalued and undermined” by the situation.
The ban breaches rights to privacy and family life, religious freedom and entitlement to marry under the European Convention on Human Rights, it was contended.
X and his husband were able to wed in England following the introduction of the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act 2013.
As the case resumed at the High Court today, Mr Justice O’Hara asked if the same same legal position should apply throughout the UK.
The Attorney General replied: “No, it’s a matter of pure social policy … being a transferred matter it’s for the devolved administration and the Executive.”
Mr Larkin insisted that the 2013 Act was clear, irrespective of how long a couple spend married in the rest of the UK.
He added: “It doesn’t matter, this is a general provision under which every same-sex marriage is for the purpose of the law in Northern Ireland treated as a civil partnership.”
The case continues.
Read more: http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/northern-ireland-news/gay-marriage-is-a-matter-for-stormont-1-7094948#ixzz3tBSPIjAh

New research says sex education ignores gay and lesbian relationships

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by Josh Withey

Pride Flag

New research from Birmingham City and Sheffield Hallam universities say teachers always depict young people as straight.

Research released this week, suggests that sex education lessons in schools ignore gay, lesbian and bisexual relationships and in make some students feel “problematic”.
According to the Independent, one teacher who had been teaching sex and relationships lessons for eight years, told researchers: “In terms of the promotion of homosexuality and lesbianism, we don’t really get into all that.
“If they openly want to discuss homosexuality, I don’t think the classroom is the best way to do it.  It’s something that we say if you have concerns about we have the drop-in clinic with the school nurse.”
Another teacher commented that she would use “some really horrible quotations” to show how some people refer to gays and lesbians, explaining: “We look at them and we talk about why people might say things like that.” The researchers point out that this approach could single out young gay, bisexual and lesbian students, making them think they are “problematic”.
The same teacher added: “In early puberty… You can feel a very strong attraction to the same sex as well as the opposite sex.  It doesn’t mean that you are lesbian or whatever.”
Lead researcher Keeley Abbott said: “Our findings highlight a lack of understanding among teachers around what constitutes real inclusivity within the context of sex and relationships education.
“Lesbian, gay and bisexual students could be left vulnerable here with a lack of any sex education that is relevant to them.”
Other researchers from the project suggest that teachers should be using more general language like ‘partner’ so young LGB students aren’t excluded.
Last month, the Chair of the Education Select Committee, Neil Carmichael, called for inclusive sex education in schools. Writing for PinkNews he said: “We recommended that Personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education should be made compulsory in all schools and that compulsory guidance for schools should be fully updated, to ensure that PSHE is appropriately inclusive of information about same-sex relationships.”

 

Northern Ireland’s gay blood ban is doing basically nothing to ‘protect’ blood supply

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Blood-bottle
Northern Ireland is making no significant difference to the safety of its blood supply by permanently banning gay men.
 
Northern Ireland’s blood ban is doing nothing, a court heard England, Scotland and Wales, men who have sex with men can give blood if they abstain from sex for 12 months – whereas in Northern Ireland they are banned for life.
Successive Health Ministers in Northern Ireland have refused to lift the permanent ban on gay men donating blood in Northern Ireland, fighting a costly legal battle despite the Health department admitting to having “no evidence” whatsoever to continue the ban.
Edwin-Poots-social-media-imageAmid a legal challenge to the rule, the Court of Appeal this week heard that former Health Minister Edwin Poots insisted on keeping the rule in place because he was scared of ‘contamination’, despite increased testing and the weight of scientific evidence.
It’s actually one every 15,625 years, by our maths, so we’re due a mix-up by the year 17,640… and we’re hoping HIV will be eradicated long before then
Adding that the DUP minister had defied professional advice on the issue, Mr Scoffield said: “The minister’s own professional adviser was supporting the change, the chief medical officer was supporting the change.”
Current Health Minister Simon Hamilton, who vowed to be guided by science on the issue, has so far ducked calls to end the ban.

Almost two thirds of NI people ‘comfortable with same-sex marriage’, survey suggests

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BBC News LogoBy Mark DevenportBBC News NI Political Editor
4 November 2015
Same-sex marriage survey results
Image captionAttitudes towards same sex-marriage appear remarkably similar on either side of the border, the survey suggests

Almost two thirds of people in Northern Ireland would feel comfortable if a family member had a same-sex marriage, a new survey suggests.

About 2,000 people in both NI and the Republic of Ireland were interviewed about issues from national identity to abortion and same-sex marriage.
The survey was jointly commissioned by BBC Northern Ireland and Irish state broadcaster, RTÉ.
On Monday, a majority of MLAs in the NI Assembly voted for same-sex marriage.
This was a first for Northern Ireland.
However, the motion was blocked by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) which tabled what is known as a petition of concern.
Next week, the first of two legal challenges to the Northern Ireland Executive on same-sex marriage is due to reach the courts.

A gay couple exchanging wedding ringsImage copyrightGetty Images
Image captionOn Monday, for the first time, a majority of MLAs backed same-sex marriage

Last week, same sex-marriage officially became lawful in the Irish Republic, after more than 60% of voters backed it in a referendum held in May.
According to the cross-border survey, carried out by the polling company B&A, attitudes towards same sex-marriage appear remarkably similar on either side of the border.
In Northern Ireland, 64% of those surveyed said they would feel very or fairly comfortable if a member of their family married someone of the same gender, while 23% indicated they would feel very or fairly uncomfortable.
In the Republic of Ireland, a slightly higher proportion, 67%, indicated they would feel comfortable but 21% said they would be uncomfortable.
The survey was conducted last month.