Andersonstown is a suburb of west

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 ...

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 ...

, at the foot of the Black Mountain and

Divis Divis (; ) is a hill and area of sprawling moorland north-west of Belfast in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. With a height of 1,568 ft (478 m), it is the highest of the Belfast Hills. It is joined with the neighbouring Black Mountain, a ...

Mountain. It contains a mixture of public and private housing and is largely a working-class area with a strong

Irish nationalist Irish nationalism is a nationalist political movement which, in its broadest sense, asserts that the people of Ireland should govern Ireland as a sovereign state. Since the mid-19th century, Irish nationalism has largely taken the form of c ...

and

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the Briti ...

tradition. The district is sometimes colloquially referred to as "Andytown". This area stretches between the Shaws Road, the Glen Road and the Andersonstown Road.

History

The area is 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 ...

. Historically, it was part of the Barony of Belfast Upper, the

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

of Shankill and the townland of Ballydownfine (. The area was also known as Whitesidetown after the family that owned the land, but they were dispossessed for the support they gave to the Society of United Irishmen, resulting in a change of name. In 1832, it was described as a village consisting of eleven families, some of whom were named

Anderson Anderson or Andersson may refer to: Companies * Anderson (Carriage), a company that manufactured automobiles from 1907 to 1910 * Anderson Electric, an early 20th-century electric car * Anderson Greenwood, an industrial manufacturer * Anderson ...

. These were likely to have been from the Scottish Lowlands. Most of what is now Andersonstown was a farm named 'Maryburne', however after a family dispute the land was sold off. The settlement then rapidly developed in the 1950s and 1960s as the local housing authority built hundreds of houses for people who were rehoused during the redevelopment of the lower Falls Road district. As the population of the area increased, Twinbrook and

Poleglass Poleglass () is an area of west Belfast in Northern Ireland. It is the name of a townland, a modern electoral ward, and a housing estate. The townland is situated in the civil parish of Derriaghy and the historic Barony of Belfast Upper. It is m ...

housing estates were built further out of Belfast. The area is bounded by Andersonstown Road on the south, Glen Road on the north and Shaw's Road on the west. The Black Mountain district electoral area consists of six electoral wards: Shaw's Road, Andersonstown, Colin Glen, Turf Lodge, Falls Park and Beechmount. The electoral ward named Andersonstown and that named Shaw's Road covers the area of Andersonstown.Local Government District Electoral Areas Belfast 2013

Features

In 2008, Andersonstown ward had a population of 5,064. There are five Catholic churches in the area: St Agnes' and St. Michael's and St Teresa's, St Matthias', and Holy Spirit Church. There are several schools including Holy Child Primary School and De La Salle College. St Mary's Christian Brothers' Grammar School and the Christian Brothers School are located on the upper Glen Road.

Sport

Casement Park Casement Park ( ga, Páirc Mhic Asmaint) is the principal Gaelic games stadium in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and serves as the home ground of the Antrim football and hurling teams. It is located in Andersonstown Road in the west of the city, a ...

, the main Gaelic Athletic Association stadium for Antrim GAA, is in Andersonstown. Donegal Celtic F.C., an association football club, play their home games at

Donegal Celtic Park Donegal Celtic Park, also known as Suffolk Road and Celtic Park or more recently the New Suffolk Road after its recent expansion, is the home of amateur league team Donegal Celtic. It is situated in the Suffolk Road in west Belfast Belfa ...

on Suffolk Road on the outskirts of Andersontown. In 1990, an Irish Cup game between Donegal Celtic and Linfield F.C., a club with a mainly Protestant following, was moved away from the area on the orders of police due to fears that violence would break out. The game was played at Windsor Park, but despite the move a riot broke out anyway. On the Glen Road, the path that leads into the mountains known as Glen Road Heights is home to both Sport & Leisure Swifts F.C. and St. Teresa's GAC, with the two clubs grounds being almost adjacent to one another.

Culture and media

The local newspaper, the '' Andersonstown News'', voices an Irish Republican viewpoint. Produced by the Belfast Media Group, which also publishes papers in other areas of the city, editions appear on Mondays and Thursdays. The district is also the subject of the novel ''Titanic Town'' by Mary Costello and the movie adaptation by Anne Devlin.

Politics

The area is part of the Black Mountain district electoral area for Belfast City Council. In the

2014 Belfast City Council election Elections to Belfast City Council were held on 22 May 2014 – on the same day as other local government elections in Northern Ireland – as part of the process of local government reform provided for in the Local Government Act (Northern Irel ...

this district elected five Sinn Féin councillors, as well as one councillor each for the

SDLP The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Irela ...

and People Before Profit. In the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, the area was a major centre of civil disturbances during the social-political conflict known as

The Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...

. A large British army fort – known as Silver City - was built in the central Broom Hill part of Andersonstown. There was generally less strife than in, for instance, neighbouring districts such as Lenadoon, which in 1972 saw clashes between the IRA and

Ulster Defence Association The Ulster Defence Association (UDA) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in September 1971 as an umbrella group for various loyalist groups and undertook an armed campaign of almost 24 years as one of t ...

and a subsequent demographic shift in the estate from Protestant to Catholic, and Ballymurphy, the scene of the

Ballymurphy massacre The Ballymurphy massacre was a series of incidents between 9 and 11 August 1971, in which the 1st Battalion, Parachute Regiment of the British Army killed at least nine civilians in Ballymurphy, Belfast, Northern Ireland, as part of Operation ...

and Springhill massacre. On 5 April 1979, two

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

soldiers were shot dead by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) whilst closing security gates at Andersonstown joint Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and British Army base. The PIRA in Andersonstown was part of the First Battalion of the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade. On 26 June 1980,

Miriam Daly Miriam Daly (; 6 May 1928 – 26 June 1980) was an Irish republican and communist activist as well as a university lecturer who was assassinated by the loyalist Ulster Defence Association (UDA) in 1980. Background and personal life She was b ...

, a lecturer at Queen's University Belfast and an Irish Republican Socialist Party activist, was found tied up and shot dead at her home in the area. Widely blamed on loyalist paramilitaries, no group ever claimed responsibility for the murder. Kieran Doherty, a Teachta Dála who was one of the ten republican prisoners to die during the

1981 Irish hunger strike The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during the Troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976, when the British government withdrew Special C ...

, was a native of Andersonstown.

Adjacent areas

Andersonstown is the main area beyond the Falls Road although it is bordered by several other areas that form the Upper Falls District Electoral Area. On the south side of the Andersonstown Road the main district is Ladybrook, which is approximately bordered by Finaghy Road North (which leads to the

Finaghy Finaghy ( or ; ) is an electoral ward in the Balmoral district of Belfast City Council, Northern Ireland. It is based on the townland of Ballyfinaghy ().Lisburn Road) and the

M1 motorway The M1 motorway connects London to Leeds, where it joins the A1(M) near Aberford, to connect to Newcastle. It was the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the UK; the first motorway in the country was the Preston By-pass, which ...

. Riverdale Estate was built in the 1940s to accommodate both privately bought and privately rented tenants. This area is bounded by Andersonstown Road and the M1 Motorway to the rear south side. Ladybrook is adjacent to the Blacks Road area which is the only predominantly loyalist section of what is otherwise a mostly

republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

locality. The area, also known as Suffolk, the name of the townland, is home to around 800 Protestants and is represented by the Suffolk Community Forum, a group which since 1996 has co-operated in the Suffolk Lenadoon Interface Group with its Catholic neighbours. The close proximity of Suffolk to neighbouring republican areas has led to the development of an

interface area Interface area is the name given in Northern Ireland to areas where segregated nationalist and unionist residential areas meet. They have been defined as "the intersection of segregated and polarised working class residential zones, in areas w ...

at the junction with the Stewartstown Road (which the Andersonstown Road merges at the junction with Shaw's Road). The interface, which is close to the fortified Woodbourne

Police Service of Northern Ireland The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI; ga, Seirbhís Póilíneachta Thuaisceart Éireann; Ulster-Scots: ') is the police force that serves Northern Ireland. It is the successor to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) after it was reform ...

barracks, has seen numerous clashes between youths from the areas. The barracks are on the site of the former Woodbourne House Hotel, which was destroyed in the earliest days of the Troubles. To the north of the Stewartstown Road is the Lenadoon area, which is bordered by Shaw's Road. Lenadoon includes an eponymous public park which was redesigned in 2000. Lenadoon was previously a mixed area and indeed in the early stages of

the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...

the

(UDA) was active in the area but following the street violence of the early 1970s Protestants moved out and the area became almost wholly Catholic. The Suffolk Road area lies further west and is home to Donegal Celtic. Suffolk includes Blacks Road and as a result is a source of conflict between rival gangs of youths. The area around Suffolk Road was previously considered part of the Protestant Suffolk area (and a Church of Ireland church stands on the corner of the Stewartstown Road here) with Lenadoon Avenue forming an interface. In 1972 this street was the scene of violence that brought an end to a short-lived Provisional IRA ceasefire. Several houses were left empty in the street until the IRA accompanied a Catholic family into one after the family's move had been approved by the

Northern Ireland Housing Executive The Northern Ireland Housing Executive is the public housing authority for Northern Ireland. It is Northern Ireland's largest social housing landlord, and the enforcing authority for those parts of housing orders that involve houses with multiple ...

. This attracted a crowd of UDA members and supporters who attacked the houses and before long the

arrived on the scene. A stand-off followed for several days until the IRA decided to accompany another removal lorry with another Catholic family into the street but at the last moment the army, fearing a riot, rammed the vehicle with an armoured car. The republican supporters erupted in an angry display, resulting in the soldiers firing rubber bullets, CS gas and water cannons. The Provisionals accused the army and Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

William Whitelaw William Stephen Ian Whitelaw, 1st Viscount Whitelaw, (28 June 1918 – 1 July 1999) was a British Conservative Party politician who served in a wide number of Cabinet positions, most notably as Home Secretary from 1979 to 1983 and as ''de fac ...

of going back on earlier negotiations and favouring the loyalists. By the evening of the event the IRA announced an end to its ceasefire as a direct response to events at Lenadoon and a gun battle with the army and UDA ensued. The Glengoland area, which borders on Colin Glen Forest Park between the Stewartstown Road and the Glen Road, represented the western edge of the

Belfast City Council Belfast City Council ( ga, Comhairle Cathrach Bhéal Feirste) is the local authority with responsibility for part of the city of Belfast, the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland. The Council serves an estimated population of (), the ...

area. After the Suffolk Road junction Stewartstown Road entered the jurisdiction of

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 ...

, heading towards

and the surrounding areas. However following the reform of local government in Northern Ireland that preceded the 2014 local elections these areas were absorbed into an expanded Belfast City Council.

References

{{coord, 54, 34, 42, N, 5, 59, 38, W, type:city(10000)_region:GB, display=title Electoral wards of Belfast Geography of Belfast