I was alerted to this yesterday after a great 2 page spread in the echo last saturday. The article on saturday actually belonged to Bobby Parry and Christine Hanratty who are the organisers of the Gerard Gardens reunion, the echo obviously just dug out and rehashed some old pics of Paul Sudbury and myself even though we're just turning up as ex residents and the band though everything they said in that article is reflective of my own views. Christine set up a facebook group for Gerard Gardens and a month later is has over 380 members posting some great old pictures that otherwise would have lay hidden - none of whom obviously feel like this guy.
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Obviously he is entitled to his opinion but I can't go along with it that there were burglaries, each family not really being any or much better off than the next. To say it's imaginary that there was a community spirit is just plain wrong. Doors back then were left open but that was probably just the way anyway back then. I remember many charra trips, play groups etc apart from the spontaneous 15 a side footy matches in the square - many families had relatives in and around the other blocks and sure there were the odd skirmishes in the square, well there was around 100 kids knocking about.
Amazingly not one person i've spoken to since his letter remembers him living in the Gardens in the 1970s and believe me everyone knew everyone, some even suspect it's a wind up. Funnily enough those slums he talks of had lecky and an inside bathroom when many at the time didn't -some even having an outside privvy into the 70s when he claimed to have lived there.
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