An Phoblacht/Republican News   ·   Thursday October 26 1995

Procession to save a mountain

BY LIZ CURTIS

THE STRANGE MEDIEVAL PROCESSION winded its way up the Black Mountain on the outskirts of Belfast, looking for all the world like a scene from a film about the plague. Figures dressed in white, wearing featureless white masks, banged drums and shook rattles as they marched up the dusty road towards the quarry. Other spectral figures pushed a cart laden with black rocks, while behind them came a huge monster, its bulging eyes painted with pound signs above a greedy mouth full of white polystyrene teeth.

This piece of spectacular street theatre - or rather mountain road theatre - was organised on Saturday, 21 October, by Black Mountain Rescue, a group made up mainly of young people, who went into action after being taken up to see the quarry. The quarry is now half a mile long and a third of a mile across, and getting bigger by the minute.

"We were so shocked that we decided we had to do something," explained a young woman with long purple plaits, as she endeavoured to attach the monster's upper jaw to its teeth. "The monster represents the quarrying company, White Mountain Quarries, who are destroying the mountain for the sake of profit, with the backing of the Department of the Environment and the city council."

As we speak, huge lorries grind past us up the road, on their way to collect yet more chunks of the mountain. "The major part of the Belfast hills has been destroyed," explains a member of the Black Mountain Environmental Group, which is supporting the protest. "It is a serious loss to our natural heritage. Also, the people of the estates below, such as Glencolin, are extremely concerned about the health risks from the dust particles in the air. And the noise from the blasting is intrusive and can be heard over a wide area. We want to see the quarrying stopped immediately, and the Belfast hills developed as a regional park that the people can enjoy."

MR EXPLOITATION

At the head of the procession, a figure dressed in a red cape urges on the quarriers and tosses white flour into the air. This is Mr Exploitation, and at the entrance to the quarry the white-suited protesters confront him, telling him he must stop his awful work, while lorry drivers halted at the security barriers look on glumly.

The protesters paste a notice onto the gatehouse:

"This organisation has been found guilty of the destruction of the Black Mountain." A quarry official emerges, looking distraught. "If you're not going away, I'm going to give the police a ring,"

"Is it a wedding ring or an engagement ring you are giving them?" enquires a voice from within a rotund white suit.

The protesters each pick up a piece of rock from the roadside and put them in the cart, before setting off down the road to deposit them on the doorstep of the Department of the Environment, who could immediately put a stop to the destruction.