Maze is an electoral ward (and a

townland A townland ( ga, baile fearainn; Ulster-Scots: ''toonlann'') is a small geographical division of land, historically and currently used in Ireland and in the Western Isles in Scotland, typically covering . The townland system is of Gaelic orig ...

) in the

Lisburn and Castlereagh City Council Lisburn (; ) is a city in Northern Ireland. It is southwest of Belfast city centre, on the River Lagan, which forms the boundary between County Antrim and County Down. First laid out in the 17th century by English and Welsh settlers, with th ...

(formerly

Lisburn City Council Lisburn City Council was the local authority for an area partly in County Antrim and partly in County Down in Northern Ireland. As of May 2015 it was merged with Castlereagh Borough Council as part of the reform of local government in Northern ...

) area of

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. It predominantly lies in County Down although its northwestern corner lies in

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

, the division being the River Lagan. The Maze electoral ward consists of the settlements of

Mazetown Mazetown or Maze (possibly , otherwise known as ''an Mhaigh'' meaning "the plain") is a small village in County Down, Northern Ireland. It was named after the townland of Maze. The village and townland sit on the southern bank of the River Laga ...

, Long Kesh, Culcavy, Aghnatrisk, Halftown and Ravernet. In 2001, there were 3393 residents in the electoral ward.NI neighbourhood Information Service
/ref>

Mazetown and Long Kesh

Mazetown is a small settlement just off the main A3

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

- Armagh road, some 3 miles west of Lisburn. Long Kesh is most famous for the

Maze Prison Her Majesty's Prison Maze (previously Long Kesh Detention Centre, and known colloquially as The Maze or H-Blocks) was a prison in Northern Ireland that was used to house alleged paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles from August 1971 to Sep ...

(closed in 2000), which was sited on an aircraft field known as 'Long Kesh'. The prison entrance was on the Culcavy Road in Halftown. Long Kesh is also known for Down Royal Racecourse, which is the main attraction in the area, as well as the adjoining nine-hole and eighteen-hole Down Royal Golf Course. The area had 351 residents in the 2001 Census.

Transport and Communications

The main A1

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

dual-carriageway splits the ward as it ascends from the Sprucefield Roundabout (M1 junctions 7/8) to the Hillsborough roundabout, on a section commonly known as Carnbane Hill, named after the townland it passes through. For almost eighty years, the area was served by trains at Maze station, which was originally opened by the Great Northern Railway (Ireland) in 1895. The station finally closed in 1974. {{cite web , title=Irish Railways , last=Ayres, first=Bob, publisher=Railscot, url=http://www.railscot.co.uk/Ireland/Irish_railways.pdf , accessdate=2007-09-13 As with the rest of the province, the telephone dialing code is '028'. However, the electoral ward covers three local exchange areas (all of which lie within the Lisburn telephone area). The western side is covered by the 'Maze' exchange (9262xxxx), the centre-north area by the Lisburn central exchange (926xxxxx) and the eastern and southern areas by the ' Hillsborough' exchange (9268xxxx).

Sport

Lower Maze F.C. play in the Mid-Ulster Football League.

Demographics

This data covers the whole electoral ward, not just the traditional Maze settlement. On Census day (29 April 2001) there were 3353 people living in the Maze electoral ward. Of these: *22.9% were aged under 16 years and 15.6% were aged 60 and over *50.8% were female and 49.2% were male *89.1% were from a

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

background and 6.2% were from a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

background *1.9% of people aged 16–74 were unemployed

References

External links

Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland Map
Wards of Northern Ireland Civil parish of Blaris