Antrim Road

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The Antrim Road (Irish: Bóthar Aontroma)[1] is a major arterial route and area of housing and commerce that runs from inner city north Belfast to Dunadry, passing through Newtownabbey and Templepatrick. It forms part of the A6 road, a traffic route which links Belfast to Derry. It passes through the New Lodge, Newington and Glengormley areas of Northern Ireland amongst others.

History

Steam tram at the gates of Chichester Park, 1897

The Antrim Road was initially a much shorter road than it is now and this smaller exit from the city centre was originally known as Duncairn Street.[2] It took its present name from the fact that it links to Antrim town, a role that was previously filled by what is now the Shankill Road, which lies west of the Antrim Road.[3]

The road was one of the areas of the city to suffer sustained bombardment by the Luftwaffe as part of the Belfast Blitz of April and May 1941 and was amongst those hit the hardest resulting in a high number of casualties.[4][5] The Waterworks on Antrim Road, Belfast's principal source of water, was one of the Luftwaffe's targets.[5] On the night of 15/16 April 1941 German bombers launched their deadliest attack on Belfast. Shortly after the air raid sirens sounded at 10.40 pm, the Luftwaffe bombers began dropping incendiaries, powerful explosive bombs and parachute mines. North Belfast was first to be attacked and bore the brunt of the bombardment with entire swaths of terraced houses levelled. The Antrim Road in particular took the full force of the air raid which resulted in an inferno that engulfed the street. The Auxiliary Fire Brigade was unable to put out the conflagration as the water mains had been broken in 20 places.[6] Victoria Barracks, in the New Lodge area, had been destroyed by a number of direct hits. Burke Street, which ran between Annadale and Dawson streets, was obliterated by bombs, its 20 dwellings flattened and all of the occupants killed.[5] The Ministry of Public Security ordered the killing of 23 animals from the nearby Belfast Zoo as it was feared the air raids would lead to the animals escaping thus posing a risk to the populace. The animals which were shot included a tiger, a lynx, a hyena, a black bear, two polar bears, and six wolves.[7]

Lower Antrim Road

Several waterfowl make their homes at the man-made lakes of the Waterworks

The Antrim Road begins at Carlisle Circus, a

Belfast city centre, and Denmark Street which leads to the area of the Lower Shankill Road
.

Annesley Street is located near the beginning of the road and it featured the synagogue, the former centre of the

Catholic grammar school for boys which has produced several notable alumni.[9]

The fence in Alexandra Park, viewed from the Catholic Newington side looking towards the Protestant Shore Road side

The New Lodge district of Belfast is located to the south of

Tiger's Bay forming an interface area. It is one of the older areas of the Antrim Road, although it was previously known as the Pinkerton Row area.[2]

The Newington area borders two public parks on this part of the Antrim Road, the Waterworks on the corner of the Cavehill Road

Antiochian Orthodox Church.[13]

The Cliftonville Road faces the New Lodge area and it runs Northwest, linking up with the Oldpark Road as it heads towards the

Cliftonville Hockey Club
originated in the area. All three clubs came under threat during the early days of the troubles for being perceived as Unionist clubs. The Cricket and Hockey clubs vacated after their grounds were looted and firebombed in 1972 while the Football club was adopted by the local Nationalist community in the aftermath of the nearby Distillery club also losing their grounds in the violence.

Cavehill to Bellevue

Cavehill Road

The Cavehill Road, which runs Northwest off the Antrim Road, takes its name from Cavehill, a large basaltic hill that dominates the skyline over much of the Antrim Road. The Cavehill Road is itself an interface, separating the traditionally Protestant Westland Road and the Catholic areas known as "Little America" although co-operation between community groups aimed at decreasing tensions has increased.[16] The Westland estate was previously home to the Shoukri brothers, two dominant figures in the North Belfast Brigade of the UDA who subsequently fell out of favour.[17] Cliftonville Golf Club is also located on Westland Road.

The Antrim Road

Territorial Army to house the North Irish Horse.[20]

Beyond this section of the road there are the Salisbury and Chichester Park areas, which are largely made up of middle class private housing. St Peter's Church, Belfast, a historic Church of Ireland church built in 1900, is found in this section of the Antrim Road, facing the North Circular Road.[21] This road leads back to the Crumlin Road, passing through the loyalist Ballysillan area.

The upper section of the Antrim Road in Belfast is variously known as Downview and Bellevue, with both areas mostly made up of large detached and semi-detached private houses. The Somerton Road, which runs alongside the Antrim Road at this part, is the current location of the main synagogue for the

palm trees and other semi-tropical plants have been successfully grown.[26]

Outside Belfast

Antrim Road in Glengormley, around "The Twelfth"

The border between Belfast and Newtownabbey forms soon after the Antrim Road passes over the M2 motorway. The road then passes through the Glengormley suburb of Newtownabbey and forms its main shopping district. Barron Hall, a venue used by the Newtownabbey Community Forum which involves both communities, was targeted in a sectarian arson attack in July 2010 having been mistaken for an Orange hall.[27] Glengormley police station is also located close to Barron Hall.[28] The road continues through the residential areas of Glengormley until it reaches Sandyknowes roundabout at which point it diverts into the industrial areas of Mallusk, also passing through the City of Belfast Golf Course.[29]

Following Mallusk the Antrim Road enters a mainly rural area in which it is largely parallel to the M2. This continues until the roundabout junction with the Ballyclare Road, when the Antrim Road forms the main thoroughfare through the village of Templepatrick. After more countryside the road ends at Dunadry, where it changes its name to the Belfast Road. Under various names this road continues as the A6 to Londonderry.

Politics

The Antrim Road passes through three separate constituencies for

William Humphrey and of the DUP, Carál Ní Chuilín and Gerry Kelly of Sinn Féin and Nichola Mallon of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP).[30] The East Antrim parliamentary seat is held by Sammy Wilson (DUP) with the Assembly seats held by David Hilditch and Gordon Lyonsof the DUP, Roy Beggs Jr and John Stewart of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), and Stewart Dickson of the Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI).[31] The MP for South Antrim is Paul Girvan (DUP) whilst the MLAS for the seat are Trevor Clarke and Pam Cameron of the DUP, John Blair of the APNI, Steve Aiken of the UUP and Declan Kearney of Sinn Féin.[32]

Much of the Antrim Road is within Belfast City Council, specifically the Castle and Oldpark district electoral areas. Castle is represented by Lydia Patterson and Gut Spence of the DUP, Mary Campbell and Tierna Cunningham of Sinn Féin, David Browne of the UUP and Pat Convery of the SDLP.[33] The seats in Oldpark are held by Daniel Lavery, Conor Maskey and Gerard McCabe of Sinn Féin, Ian Crozier and Gareth McKee of the DUP and Nichola Mallon of the SDLP.[34]

After Belfast the road enters the territory of Newtownabbey Borough Council where it is contained within the Antrim Line area. The seven councillors for this area are Audrey Ball and Paula Bradley of the DUP, Marie Mackessy and Gerard O'Reilly of Sinn Féin, as well as John Blair (APNI), Mark Cosgrove (UUP) and Noreen McClelland (SDLP).[35]

Following this the remainder of the road is contained within the Antrim South East area of Antrim Borough Council. The councillors are Sam Dunlop and Roy Thompson of the DUP, Paul Michael and Mervyn Rea of the UUP as well as Thomas Burns (SDLP), Alan Lawther (APNI) and Annemarie Logue (Sinn Féin).[36]

Education

As well as

Castle High School which was established on the site of Dunlambert Boys Secondary School in 1985 closed in 2009. Several primary schools are found in and around the Antrim Road including Edmund Rice, Holy Family,[41] Currie Primary School, St Therese of Liseux Primary School[42]
and Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School.

The Troubles

The Antrim Road was the scene of several high-profile attacks and killings during the conflict known as

dissident republicans.[44]

PIRA

Republican mural showing Bobby Sands, Winifred Carney and Wolfe Tone in the Newington area

The PIRA, specifically the Third Battalion of the

Irish News and said it had been a "punishment shooting" carried out by the IRA.[49] On 24 September 1976 they killed two more men, a UDA member and a Protestant civilian, at Cavehill Inn on Cavehill Road, Belfast.[50]

The PIRA returned to its sniper activity on the Antrim Road during the 1980s, killing a soldier on 2 May 1980[51] and an RUC officer in Duncairn Gardens on 6 May 1981.[52] 21 October 1981: A UDR soldier was shot dead outside Belfast Zoo.[52] This was followed on 8 January 1982 by the killing of an Ulster Defence Regiment soldier who was working at an Antrim Road petrol station.[53] A further RUC officer was killed on 23 June 1987 during another gun attack on the road's police station.[54]

On 16 March 1989 the PIRA killed John Irvine, a senior member of the UVF at his home in the Skegoneill area after a unit entered his home and shot him 15 times at close range.[55] Later that same year a civilian was killed on the Cavehill Road in what The Sunday Tribune reported had been an error, with a loyalist paramilitary again the intended target. The Belfast Brigade issued an apology and confirmed it had been a case of mistaken identity.[56] Their last major attack in the area also occurred on the Cavehill Road on 30 December 1992 when a British soldier who lived there was killed at his home. Two IRA volunteers burst into the house armed with AK-47 assault rifles and shot the soldier at least 13 times at close range. The soldier's wife claimed that IRA volunteer Thomas Begley was one of the gunmen.[57]

UVF

UVF activity during the early 1970s helped to earn the road its "murder mile" nickname with a number of killings and attacks carried out by the paramilitary organisation. On 4 June 1972 they shot dead a Catholic civilian at his shop on Annesley Street[58] and nineteen days later they carried out a drive-by shooting on a group of Catholics standing outside a bank at the corner of Antrim Road and Atlantic Avenue. One Catholic civilian was killed and another wounded.[59] On 25 September 1974 a further Catholic civilian was killed by the UVF on the Limestone Road.[48]

Using the cover name of Protestant Action Force (PAF), the UVF claimed responsibility for blowing up the Christian Brothers Past Pupils Union building on 21 May 1975.[60] This was followed on 17 October the same year by the murder of a Protestant taxi driver on the Cavehill Road, with the group wrongly assuming that he was Catholic.[61] On 17 January 1976 they launched a no-warning bomb attack on Sheridan's Bar at New Lodge Road, Belfast. Two Catholic civilians were killed and 26 wounded.[62] This was followed on 5 November 1976 by the shooting of a 15-year-old Catholic civilian as she stood outside a friend's home on Newington Street. She died the following day. It is believed the UVF was responsible.[63]

UVF activity in the area tailed off thereafter, apart from the killing of a Catholic civilian in a shop on 1 September 1979[64] and a further killing by the "Protestant Action Force" on 19 July 1986.[65] However the UVF killed two Catholic civilians on the Antrim Road within the space of three weeks in November 1990, one at his home in Spamount Street in the New Lodge and the other at his Duncairn Gardens workplace.[66] The group's last killing occurred on 17 February 1994 when a Catholic civilian living on Skegoneill Avenue was killed at his home by the Red Hand Commando.[67]

UDA

Although the North Belfast Brigade was not often the most active of the UDA's six area, the Antrim Road's proximity to the Lower Shankill Road, the stronghold of the UDA West Belfast Brigade, ensured that the UDA was also active locally. The first killing to be identified in the area as the work of the UDA occurred on 4 May 1972 when a Catholic civilian was found stabbed-to-death in an entry between Baltic Avenue and Atlantic Avenue in the Newington area.[68] Later, on 16 May 1974, a UDA member shot dead a Catholic civilian at the Edlingham Street/Stratheden Street junction. She had stopped to talk to a friend. A witness said the gunman emerged from the loyalist Tiger Bay area. There had been sporadic trouble in the area that day and locals complained that the British Army had done little to stop UDA activity nearby.[69] This was followed on 14 June 1975 by the killing of a Catholic civilian in a drive-by shooting on New Lodge Road, Belfast.[61] On 27 August 1976 UDA members petrol-bombed the home of a young Catholic family on Hillman Street, just off the Duncairn Gardens interface. Two Catholic civilians and their ten-month-old baby were killed.[70] The killing of another Catholic civilian on the Cavehill Road on 27 May 1978[71] brought an end to UDA shootings in the area for some ten years however.

The UDA returned to action on the Antrim Road on 10 May 1988 when, using the

Pat Finucane on Fortwilliam Drive, off the Antrim Road and shot him dead. The killing has since been at the centre of allegations regarding collusion between loyalist paramilitaries and the British security forces.[73]

The UDA committed two further killings in the area during 1993, killing a Catholic woman at her Fortwilliam Park home on 30 August 1993[74] and a Catholic man at his home on Newington Avenue on 15 October 1993, with both victims civilians.[74] Their last killing on the road came after the collapse of the 1994 Combined Loyalist Military Command ceasefire when, on 1 September 1996 they shot dead a Catholic civilian outside his friend's house on Skegoneill Avenue.[75]

References

  1. ^ "Bóthar Aontroma/Antrim Road". logainm.ie. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  2. ^ a b Belfast Street Names Then and Now
  3. ^ Paul Hamilton, Up The Shankill, Blackstaff Press, 1979, p. 2
  4. ^ Darkest days – Belfast remembers the Blitz
  5. ^ a b c "History of the New Lodge" Archived 29 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 20 March 2012
  6. ^ Barton, Jonathan, lecturer at Queen's University, Belfast. The Belfast Blitz, 1941, an article. Retrieved 20 March 2012
  7. ^ "Baby elephant kept as pet to save her from WW2 blitz". The Telegraph. Stephen Adams. 23 March 2009
  8. ^ a b The Virtual Jewish History Tour – Ireland
  9. ^ St Malachy's College
  10. ^ Waterworks
  11. ^ "Belfast park opens door to peace". The Guardian. 16 September 2011. Archived from the original on 8 December 2022.
  12. ^ "Church of Saint John of Shanghai". Archived from the original on 27 September 2015. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
  13. ^ Church of Saint Ignatius Archived 29 December 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  14. ^ David Harvey, Belfast Trolleybuses, Amberley Publishing, 2010, p. 69
  15. ^ Belfast Royal Academy
  16. ^ The safest barbecue in Belfast
  17. ^ Paramilitary Shoukri group gives up final arms
  18. ^ Station opening hours Archived 22 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  19. ^ History of Fortwilliam[permanent dead link]
  20. ^ Dunmore Park Camp
  21. ^ Saint Peter and Saint James Archived 15 December 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  22. ^ Belfast Jewish Community Archived 7 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  23. ^ Diocese of Down and Connor bishops
  24. ^ Belfast Castle
  25. ^ Belfast Zoo Archived 6 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  26. ^ Harvey, p. 57
  27. ^ Community centre hit by arson 'may have been mistaken for Orange hall'
  28. ^ Station opening hours Archived 22 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  29. ^ City of Belfast Golf Club
  30. ^ "Belfast North (assembly constituency)". BBC Northern Ireland. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  31. ^ "East Antrim". BBC Northern Ireland. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  32. ^ "South Antrim". BBC Northern Ireland. Retrieved 29 October 2020.
  33. ^ "Castle elections". Archived from the original on 12 May 2011. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  34. ^ "Oldpark elections". Archived from the original on 12 May 2011. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  35. ^ Newtownabbey Borough Council Antrim Line
  36. ^ Antrim Borough Council Councillors and Committees Archived 8 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  37. ^ Dominican College, Fortwilliam Archived 23 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  38. ^ St Patrick's College
  39. ^ "Little Flower". Archived from the original on 14 April 2012. Retrieved 20 March 2012.
  40. ^ Hazelwood
  41. ^ Holy Family PS
  42. ^ St Therese of Liseux
  43. ^ Sluka, Death Squad, p. 152
  44. ^ Belfast bomb alert as 'unstable' device prompts Antrim Road closure
  45. ^ Sutton 1971
  46. ^ Sutton Index of Deaths- 1972
  47. ^ a b Sutton 1973
  48. ^ a b Sutton 1974
  49. ISBN 1-84018-227-X
    ., p. 474
  50. ^ Sutton 1976
  51. ^ "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". Cain.ulst.ac.uk. 31 August 1980.
  52. ^ a b "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". Cain.ulst.ac.uk.
  53. ^ "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". Cain.ulst.ac.uk. 16 December 1982.
  54. ^ "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". Cain.ulst.ac.uk. 28 December 2000.
  55. ^ "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". Cain.ulst.ac.uk. 18 October 1989.
  56. ^ McKittrick, p. 1181
  57. ^ McKittrick, pp. 1304–1305
  58. ^ McKittrick, p.195
  59. ^ McKittrick, p.204
  60. ^ "Murdered John revived our community spirit". Andersonstown News.
  61. ^ a b Sutton 1975
  62. ^ McKittrick, p.616
  63. ^ McKittrick, p.687
  64. ^ Sutton 1979
  65. ^ Sutton 1986
  66. ^ Sutton 1990
  67. ^ Sutton 1994
  68. ^ McKittrick, p.181
  69. ^ McKittrick, p.447
  70. ^ McKittrick, p.673
  71. ^ Sutton 1978
  72. ^ Sutton 1988
  73. ^ Pat Finucane: A Controversial Killing
  74. ^ a b Sutton 1993
  75. ^ Sutton 1996
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