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Cregagh
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Cregagh
Cregagh (from Irish an Chreagaigh 'the rocky place') is an area in the southeast of Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the name of a townland and has been adopted as the name of an electoral ward of Belfast City council. The townland dates back to medieval times, when it was part of the territory held by the O'Neills of Clannaboy. The area is centred on the Cregagh Road. The Woodstock/Cregagh Road is a continuous arterial route in the city, with the Woodstock making up the lower half of the route and the Cregagh the upper half. It runs from the Albertbridge Road, close to the Short Strand, to the A55 Outer Ring road.
The Woodstock Road forms the beginning of the continuous road that includes Cregagh and which runs from close to the River Lagan to the outskirts of Belfast. The road begins at the end of Woodstock Link, which itself starts at a junction which turns off from the Albertbridge Road facing Mountpottinger Road. The Mount, a prominent conference facility built in 1997, is located close to this junction on the Woodstock Link. Following the junction with the Beersbridge Road the Woodstock Road is mainly lined with shops and other places of business. The area, also known as Willowfield, is also home to a number of churches, including the Church of Ireland place of worship Willowfield Parish Church, Saint Anthony's Roman Catholic Church. and the Cregagh Gospel Hall. Other amenities include a public library and a Police Service of Northern Ireland station. The Willowfield area formerly lent its name to the Belfast Willowfield constituency of the old Parliament of Northern Ireland.
An Ulster loyalist flute band, Crimson Star, is based in the area and their badge is shown on a mural painted on a wall on Ardenvohr Street just off the Woodstock Road. During the Troubles notorious Ulster Volunteer Force hitman Robert "Squeak" Seymour ran a video shop on the Woodstock Road. It was whilst working at his shop that Seymour was shot and killed by two Provisional Irish Republican Army operatives on 15 June 1988.
The Woodstock Road continues as far as Ravenhill Avenue where it becomes the Cregagh Road. The Woodstock Road was formerly known as the lower Cregagh Road and in the nineteenth century it was mainly made up of farmland. Until the 1920s parts of the Cregagh Road, which is now entirely urbanised, were agricultural.
At its lower stage, the Cregagh Road, like the Woodstock Road, is lined with several shops. This area also has a number of churches, the most prominent of which are Cregagh Methodist Church and Cregagh Presbyterian Church.
Just off the Cregagh Road, on Gibson Park Avenue, are two locally well-known sporting venues, Cregagh Cricket Club and Malone Rugby Club. Cregagh Cricket Club celebrated its centenary in 2006. The cricket ground is also used by Northern Amateur Football League club Orangefield Old Boys and is part of Cregagh Sports Club, effectively a merger of the cricket and association football clubs, with both sharing the same Gibson Park Avenue facilities. This alliance was concluded in the early 1980s, with the two clubs being previously unconnected. Ravenhill Stadium, the home of Ulster Rugby, lies a short distance away, about halfway between the Cregagh Road and the Ravenhill Road to the east.
The Cregagh Estate is located off the Cregagh Road, starting after the roundabout junction with Ladas Drive and Mount Merrion Avenue. The junction is immediately after Bell's Bridge which crosses the Loop River, one of Belfast's myriad minor rivers. The estate was built as a public housing project in 1946–1947 and was designed by government architect T. F. O. Rippingham. Tenants have subsequently been offered the opportunity to purchase their homes. The estate is characterised by its uncommon flat roofs and staggered house fronts. The streets in the Cregagh Estate are named after the rivers and streams of the island of Ireland (e.g. Callan Way, Kilbroney Bend).
Although predominantly Protestant from its inception, Cregagh had a significant Catholic minority for a number of years and at the start of the Troubles, Catholics even joined in local vigilante patrols under the auspices of the Cregagh Tenants Association. This co-operation ended in 1972 with the arrival of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and before long most of the Catholic residents had left the area for west Belfast. Around this time housing allocation in the area came under UDA control and the local "Tartan gangs" were taken over as the junior UDA. Subsequently, however the UDA declined in the area, and east Belfast in general, and the Ulster Volunteer Force became more important, with UVF murals being painted on Cregagh's walls. By 2018 however the only murals on Cregagh estate are one commemorating Victoria Cross winners Eric Norman Frankland Bell, Geoffrey Cather, William McFadzean and Robert Quigg and another showing local boy George Best.
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Cregagh
Cregagh (from Irish an Chreagaigh 'the rocky place') is an area in the southeast of Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is the name of a townland and has been adopted as the name of an electoral ward of Belfast City council. The townland dates back to medieval times, when it was part of the territory held by the O'Neills of Clannaboy. The area is centred on the Cregagh Road. The Woodstock/Cregagh Road is a continuous arterial route in the city, with the Woodstock making up the lower half of the route and the Cregagh the upper half. It runs from the Albertbridge Road, close to the Short Strand, to the A55 Outer Ring road.
The Woodstock Road forms the beginning of the continuous road that includes Cregagh and which runs from close to the River Lagan to the outskirts of Belfast. The road begins at the end of Woodstock Link, which itself starts at a junction which turns off from the Albertbridge Road facing Mountpottinger Road. The Mount, a prominent conference facility built in 1997, is located close to this junction on the Woodstock Link. Following the junction with the Beersbridge Road the Woodstock Road is mainly lined with shops and other places of business. The area, also known as Willowfield, is also home to a number of churches, including the Church of Ireland place of worship Willowfield Parish Church, Saint Anthony's Roman Catholic Church. and the Cregagh Gospel Hall. Other amenities include a public library and a Police Service of Northern Ireland station. The Willowfield area formerly lent its name to the Belfast Willowfield constituency of the old Parliament of Northern Ireland.
An Ulster loyalist flute band, Crimson Star, is based in the area and their badge is shown on a mural painted on a wall on Ardenvohr Street just off the Woodstock Road. During the Troubles notorious Ulster Volunteer Force hitman Robert "Squeak" Seymour ran a video shop on the Woodstock Road. It was whilst working at his shop that Seymour was shot and killed by two Provisional Irish Republican Army operatives on 15 June 1988.
The Woodstock Road continues as far as Ravenhill Avenue where it becomes the Cregagh Road. The Woodstock Road was formerly known as the lower Cregagh Road and in the nineteenth century it was mainly made up of farmland. Until the 1920s parts of the Cregagh Road, which is now entirely urbanised, were agricultural.
At its lower stage, the Cregagh Road, like the Woodstock Road, is lined with several shops. This area also has a number of churches, the most prominent of which are Cregagh Methodist Church and Cregagh Presbyterian Church.
Just off the Cregagh Road, on Gibson Park Avenue, are two locally well-known sporting venues, Cregagh Cricket Club and Malone Rugby Club. Cregagh Cricket Club celebrated its centenary in 2006. The cricket ground is also used by Northern Amateur Football League club Orangefield Old Boys and is part of Cregagh Sports Club, effectively a merger of the cricket and association football clubs, with both sharing the same Gibson Park Avenue facilities. This alliance was concluded in the early 1980s, with the two clubs being previously unconnected. Ravenhill Stadium, the home of Ulster Rugby, lies a short distance away, about halfway between the Cregagh Road and the Ravenhill Road to the east.
The Cregagh Estate is located off the Cregagh Road, starting after the roundabout junction with Ladas Drive and Mount Merrion Avenue. The junction is immediately after Bell's Bridge which crosses the Loop River, one of Belfast's myriad minor rivers. The estate was built as a public housing project in 1946–1947 and was designed by government architect T. F. O. Rippingham. Tenants have subsequently been offered the opportunity to purchase their homes. The estate is characterised by its uncommon flat roofs and staggered house fronts. The streets in the Cregagh Estate are named after the rivers and streams of the island of Ireland (e.g. Callan Way, Kilbroney Bend).
Although predominantly Protestant from its inception, Cregagh had a significant Catholic minority for a number of years and at the start of the Troubles, Catholics even joined in local vigilante patrols under the auspices of the Cregagh Tenants Association. This co-operation ended in 1972 with the arrival of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and before long most of the Catholic residents had left the area for west Belfast. Around this time housing allocation in the area came under UDA control and the local "Tartan gangs" were taken over as the junior UDA. Subsequently, however the UDA declined in the area, and east Belfast in general, and the Ulster Volunteer Force became more important, with UVF murals being painted on Cregagh's walls. By 2018 however the only murals on Cregagh estate are one commemorating Victoria Cross winners Eric Norman Frankland Bell, Geoffrey Cather, William McFadzean and Robert Quigg and another showing local boy George Best.
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