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''.
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)