Andersonstown

Andersonstown
Andersonstown Road, 2007
Population	(2001 Census)
Irish grid reference	O003360
District	Belfast City Council
County	County Antrim
Country	Northern Ireland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Postcode district	BT11
Dialling code	028
EU Parliament	Northern Ireland
NI Assembly	West Belfast
List of places: UK • Northern Ireland • Antrim

Andersonstown (Irish: Baile Andarsan/Baile Mhic Aindréis) is a suburb of Belfast, Northern Ireland. The area was originally 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.^[1] The district is sometimes colloquially referred to as "Andytown" or A Town.

History

It sits at the bottom of the Black Mountain and Divis Mountain and contains a mixture of public and private housing. It is largely populated by the Irish nationalist and Roman Catholic community. Andersonstown is also an electoral ward of Belfast. The consensus view^{[citation needed]} is that the area begins at the tip of the upper Falls Road, where it becomes the Andersonstown Road, close to the junction with the Glen Road. It is bounded at the western end by the Shaw's Road, forming a large triangle.

The area rapidly expanded during 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. Schools - Holy Child School and La Salle Secondary School - were built, along with a library. As the population of the area increased Twinbrook and Poleglass housing estates were built further out of Belfast.^{[citation needed]}

The Troubles

During the 1970s and 1980s, the area was a major centre of civil disturbances during the religious-political conflict known as The Troubles. During this period a large British army fort - known as Silver City was built in the central Broom Hill part of Andersonstown.^[2] However 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 and a subsequent demographic shift in the estate from Protestant to Catholic^[3], and Ballymurphy, the scene of the Ballymurphy massacre and Springhill massacre.

On 5 April 1979 two British Army soldiers were shot dead by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) while standing outside Andersonstown joint Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and British Army base.^[4] The PIRA in Andersonstown was part of the First Battalion of the Provisional IRA Belfast Brigade.^[5]

On 26 June 1980 Miriam Daly, a lecturer at Queens 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.^[6]

Kieran Doherty, a Teachta Dála who was one of the ten republican prisoners to die during the 1981 Irish hunger strike, was a native of Andersonstown.^[7]

Features

According to the 2008 estimate the Andersonstown ward has a population of 5,064.^[8] It remains a predominantly working-class area. There has been considerable effort to attract employment to the area and to improve the physical infrastructure.^{[citation needed]} It has four Catholic churches: St Agnes', St Teresa's, St Michael's and St Matthias'.

Sport

Casement Park, the main Gaelic Athletic Association stadium for Antrim GAA is located in Andersonstown.^[9]

Donegal Celtic F.C., an association football club, play their home games at Donegal Celtic Park 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.^[10]

Culture and media

The local newspaper named Andersonstown News voices an Irish Republican viewpoint.^[11] Produced by the Belfast Media Group, which also publishes papers in other areas of the city, editions appear on Mondays and Thursdays.^[12]

The district is also the subject of the novel Titanic Town by Mary Costello and the movie adaptation by Anne Devlin.^{[citation needed]}

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 area and the Upper Lisburn Road) and the M1 motorway. Ladybrook is adjacent to the Blacks Road area which is the only predominantly loyalist section of what is otherwise a mostly republican locality. The area, also known as Suffolk, 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.^[13] The close proximity of Suffolk to neighbouring republican areas has led to the development of an interface area at the junction with the Stewartstown Road (which the Andersonstown Road merges into around the Suffolk Road).^[14][15] The interface, which is close to the fortified Woodbourne Police Service of Northern Ireland barracks, has seen numerous clashes between youths from the areas.^[16]

To the north of the Andersonstown Road is the Lenadoon area, which is bordered by Shaw's Road. Lenadoon includes an eponymous public park which was redesigned in 2000.^[17] Lenadoon was previously a mixed area and indeed in the early stages of the Troubles the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) was even active in the area but following the street violence of the early 1970s and the subsequent sectarian redrawing of the Belfast map the Protestants moved out and the area became almost wholly Catholic.^[18] 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.^[16] The area around Suffolk Road was previously considered part of the Protestant Suffolk area with Lenadoon Avenue forming an interface and in 1972 the 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 Housing Executive. This attracted a crowd of UDA members and supporters who attacked the houses and before long the British Army 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 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.^[19]

The Glengoland area, which borders on Colin Glen Forest Park between the Stewartstown Road and the Glen Road, represents the western edge of the Belfast City Council area. After the Glencolin area Stewartstown Road enters the jurisdiction of Lisburn City Council, heading towards Poleglass and the surrounding areas.

References

Coordinates: 54°34′42″N 5°59′38″W / 54.57833°N 5.99389°W / 54.57833; -5.99389

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