Poleglass

Poleglass Irish: Poll Glas
A street in Poleglass
Poleglass Location within Northern Ireland
Population	9,105  [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
County	County Antrim
Country	Northern Ireland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Police	Northern Ireland
Fire	Northern Ireland
Ambulance	Northern Ireland
UK Parliament	Belfast West
List of places UK Northern Ireland Antrim 54°33′18″N6°01′16″W / 54.555°N 6.021°W / 54.555; -6.021

Poleglass (from Irish Poll Glas, meaning 'green hollow') ^[6] is an area of west Belfast in Northern Ireland. It is the name of a townland, a modern electoral ward, ^[7] and a housing estate. The townland is situated in the civil parish of Derriaghy and the historic Barony of Belfast Upper. ^[8] It is mainly an Irish nationalist area.

Due to its proximity to both Belfast and Lisburn, it has become popular with commuters. This has led to the swift growth of housing in the area and a sharp rise in house prices. Addresses in Poleglass are classed as being in Belfast, and the telephone numbers in the area generally start with '90' as with the rest of Belfast.

Early history

The area currently known as Poleglass has a long history of human habitation, with a ringfort having existed in the area yielding artefacts from the early Christian era. ^[9] A thirteenth century silver coin was also excavated.

By the early 20th century the area had become part of the green belt between Belfast and Lisburn and was largely uninhabited. ^[10] Cloona House is a substantial country house, a few miles from Belfast when it was built. It was the childhood home of Beatrice Grimshaw, journalist and adventurer. ^[11] It was taken over by the Ministry of Defence in 1940, and served as the home of the General Officer Commanding of the British Army in Northern Ireland. In 1980 it was bought by the Catholic Church. It has been used for a community projects and since 2011 has been occupied by Colin Neighbourhood Partnership. ^[12]

Development

Poleglass was one of a number of housing schemes established in the forty years or so after the Second World War as an attempt to alleviate the overcrowding of the Catholic areas of west Belfast, in particular the lower Falls Road, which underwent extensive redevelopment during the period. ^[13] The building of the estate was first mooted in 1973 but its location within the boundaries of Lisburn, a town at the time with a significant Protestant majority, led to vehement protests from loyalists. Building did not begin until 1979 and as a result of pressure from both Unionist politicians and the Ulster Defence Association the original Department of Environment plan for 4,000 houses had been scaled back to 1,563. ^[14] The first areas, Old Colin and Colinmill, opened in 1980 with the first residents moved in on the morning of 28 November 1980.^{[ citation needed ]}

By the year 2000 Poleglass had expanded to around 2,000 dwellings. ^[15] This expansion was necessitated by the demolition of parts of the Divis flats on the lower Falls, with the residents rehoused in Poleglass. ^[16] It is made up of small estates, such as Glenbank, Glenbawn, Merrion Park, Woodside, Glenwood, Glenkeen, Laurelbank, Old Colin, Colinmill, Springbank, Colinbrook, Colinvale, Ardcaoin and Brianswell. Each of these vary in their size and age, some being fairly recent developments, others being original housing from when Poleglass first emerged.^{[ citation needed ]} Notable landmarks include the Dairy Farm Shopping Centre, Footprints Women's Centre, the Church of the Nativity and Colin Glen Forest Park. The home of youth team Colin Valley football is situated behind the Olde Mill and they have won several trophies world-wide. Most memorably, they were winners of the Holland Youth Cup 1997. ^[17] The Colin Valley senior side are also based at Good Shepherd Road in Poleglass. They compete in the intermediate sections of the Northern Amateur Football League. ^[18]

One of the newest developments within Poleglass would be the 'Páirc Nua Chollann' a new park program situated in the Southwest Colin area brought forward by elected Sinn Fein representatives at Belfast City Council to suit the needs of Poleglass's youth. The public was consulted over the naming of the park, with a majority local vote opting for the “full” Irish translation Páirc Nua Chollann. It received 317 responses, and accounted for 42.4 percent of the public vote. It replaced a previous option, the English/Irish hybrid “Páirc Nua Colin.” ^[19]

Crime

In keeping with a number of social housing areas in Northern Ireland Poleglass has gained a reputation for the anti-social behaviour of gangs of "hoods" who indulge in such acts as joyriding. During the late 1990s a "Neighbourhood Watch" scheme was organised by local residents, with activities such as night-time patrols, the blocking of small streets to prevent access to joy riders and curfews for large groups of youth undertaken. The scheme was criticised by some as vigilantism with claims made by the families of some youths that they were forced out of the estate although members of the Neighbourhood Watch rejected these allegations. ^[20] This followed an incident in September 1996 when the Provisional Irish Republican Army expelled seven men aged between 17 and 30 from the area after they had been accused of a spate of arson attacks on vehicles. ^[21] The dissident Arm Na Poblachta has shown a level of activity in the Polegrass area.

Summary justice in the form of punishment beatings and knee cappings dealt out to transgressors by paramilitaries have continued to be a feature of life in Poleglass after the end of the Troubles. One such attack occurred in August 2008 when a 20-year-old man was discovered after being shot in the legs. ^[22] In 2011 a 46-year-old man was seriously injured in the area in a case treated by police as attempted murder although no suggestion was made that this attack was connected to paramilitaries or punishment attacks. ^[23]

Transport

Poleglass is served by the Metro arm of Translink bus services as part of the 10c Colin Connect feeder service ^[24] Poleglass to City Centre services are the, 10f, ^[25] 10x ^[26] and the 530a. ^[27] The Poleglass to Lisburn service is the 530a. ^[27]

The West Belfast Taxi Association, which provides a hackney carriage "taxibus" service to the outlying estates beyond the Falls Road, also connects the city centre with Poleglass. ^[28]

Politics

Poleglass is part of the Collin District Electoral Area. Poleglass, like most of West Belfast, overwhelmingly votes for nationalist parties like Sinn Fein and the SDLP. ^[29] Since 2014, Poleglass has had a Sinn Fein councillor as their representative. ^[30] Cllr Magennis led from 2014 till 2022 after being elected twice, he was later co-opted by Cllr McCann ^[31] who is pushing to be elected for the first time in the 2023 Northern Ireland Local Elections. ^[32]

Councillors and Elections

Elections	Councillor	Party
2023	Caomhín McCann [33]	Sinn Fein
2019	Stephen Magennis (re-elected) [34]	Sinn Fein
2014	Stephen Magennis [35]	Sinn Fein

Adjacent areas

Poleglass is bordered on the east by the Stewartstown Road, which originates in the Andersonstown area of west Belfast. There are two main areas of housing on this road apart from Poleglass i.e. Twinbrook and Lagmore. Notable residents of Twinbrook have included Bobby Sands who led an IRA active service unit on the estate from his parents' Laburnum Way home before his imprisonment prior to his death on hunger strike. ^[36] Twinbrook has also long been home to several Irish Traveller families. ^[37] Like Poleglass, Twinbrook gives its name to an electoral ward in the Dunmurry Cross area of Lisburn City Council. ^[38]

The Lagmore housing estate lies to the south of Poleglass, in the Derriaghy area of Lisburn. Lagmore is a more recent development than Poleglass or Twinbrook and indeed as of 2012 houses are still being built on the estate. ^[39] Its Catholic church, Christ the Redeemer, was only created as a breakaway parish from St Luke's Twinbrook in 1997 ^[40] whilst the local primary school of the same name dates to only 1999. ^[41]

Notable people

• Belle Steel
• Michael Ferguson
• Frank Pantridge
• Chris Ward
• Beatrice Grimshaw ^{[42] [43] [44]}

See also

• List of townlands in County Antrim

References

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2. https://explore.nisra.gov.uk/area-explorer-2021/N21000290/
3. https://explore.nisra.gov.uk/area-explorer-2021/N20001246/
4. https://explore.nisra.gov.uk/area-explorer-2021/N20001250/
5. https://explore.nisra.gov.uk/area-explorer-2021/N21000292/
6. "Poleglass". Place Names NI. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
7. Councillors in the Dunmurry Cross Area Archived 15 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
8. "Killeaton". IreAtlas Townlands Database. Retrieved 21 April 2015.
9. Seán P. Ó Ríordáin, Ruaidhrí De Valera, Antiquities of the Irish countryside, Taylor & Francis, 1979, p. 33
10. William J. V. Neill, Urban planning and cultural identity, Routledge, 2004, pp. 190–191
11. Gardner, Susan, 1987, A "‘vert to Australianism": Beatrice Grimshaw and the Bicentenary: Hecate. St. Lucia, vol. 13, no. 2 (30 November 1987), p. 31.
12. "Colin Neighbourhood Partnership | Neighbourhood Renewal | Dunmurry". CNP. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
13. Scott A. Bollens, On narrow ground: urban policy and ethnic conflict in Jerusalem and Belfast, SUNY Press, 2000, p. 244
14. Seán Hutton, Paul Stewart, Ireland's histories: aspects of state, society, and ideology, Routledge, 1991, p. 140
15. Bollens, p. 245
16. Donna M. Lanclos, At play in Belfast: children's folklore and identities in Northern Ireland, Rutgers University Press, 2003, p. 165
17. "Honours". COLIN VALLEY FOOTBALL CLUB. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
18. Colin Valley F.C. at NAFL site
19. Kenwood, Michael (9 June 2021). "Belfast's newest park to be called Páirc Nua Chollann". BelfastLive. Retrieved 4 October 2022.
20. Heather Hamill, The hoods: crime and punishment in Belfast, Princeton University Press, 2010, pp. 25–27
21. Julia Hall, To serve without favor: policing, human rights, and accountability in Northern Ireland, Human Rights Watch, 1997, p. 133
22. Anna Eriksson, Justice in transition: community restorative justice in Northern Ireland, Taylor & Francis US, 2009, p. 38
23. Trio bailed over Poleglass murder bid
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28. Streets of Fear
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31. "Collin (District Electoral Area)", Wikipedia, 4 February 2023, retrieved 23 April 2023
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34. "Collin (District Electoral Area)", Wikipedia, 4 February 2023, retrieved 23 April 2023
35. "Collin (District Electoral Area)", Wikipedia, 4 February 2023, retrieved 23 April 2023
36. David Beresford, Ten Men Dead: The Story of the 1981 Irish Hunger Strike, HarperCollins UK, 1987, p. 62
37. Anna Eriksson, Justice in Transition: Community Restorative Justice in Northern Ireland, Taylor & Francis, 2009, p. 157
38. Dunmurry Cross Electoral Area Archived 15 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine
39. "Now parents can't get kids into primaries". Belfast Media Group. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
40. "Christ the Redeemer Parish, Lagmore, Belfast – A Growing Parish by Aoife Hegarty". Archived from the original on 28 July 2012. Retrieved 29 March 2023.
41. Christ the Redeemer Primary School
42. "Colin Heritage, Northern Ireland history | Colinheritage.com" . Retrieved 29 March 2023.
43. "Beatrice Grimshaw, South Pacific Adventurer, Travel Writer and Novelist – Grimshaw Origins and History".
44. "DIB Explorers: Beatrice Grimshaw, author and traveller". 30 July 2020.