Springfield Road
The Springfield Road is a residential area and road traffic thoroughfare adjacent to the Falls Road in west Belfast. The local population is predominantly Irish nationalist and republican. Along parts of the road are several interface areas with the neighbouring Ulster loyalist areas of the Greater Shankill. The Springfield Road includes the Ballymurphy and New Barnsley districts and is overlooked by Black Mountain and Divis.
History
Much of what now forms the housing estates of the Springfield Road was formerly rural land near the base of the mountains. The area around what became New Barnsley was known as Brown's Fields and was formerly used for grazing cattle. The area would later become industrialised with James Mackie & Sons establishing a textile factory on the road in the late nineteenth century. It became a leading employer and produced large quantities of munitions during the Second World War.The area experienced growth in the 1940s when a series of housing estates were built. The pattern of segregation in Northern Ireland was maintained as the new estates were populated along denominational lines. The Highfield and New Barnsley estates on the northern side of the road were predominantly Protestant, and the Ballymurphy estate earmarked for a mainly Catholic population. The area saw an influx of temporary residents in the 1960s when the inhabitants of the Pound Loney area of the lower Falls were temporarily rehoused in Ballymurphy whilst the new Divis flats complex was built. A young Gerry Adams, who had been involved in agitation against the redevelopment of the Pound Loney, was amongst those to be rehoused in this manner.
Areas of the Springfield Road
The Springfield Road starts on the lower Falls Road, forming a continuation of the Grosvenor Road, which links the Falls to Belfast city centre. The road continues north-west before turning sharply in a more south-westerly direction. It eventually merges into the Monagh by-pass which links the area with Kennedy Way and ultimately the M1 motorway. From the Grosvenor Road to the junction with the West Circular Road it forms part of the B38 whilst from there after it is part of the A55.Lower Springfield
The areas at the start of the Springfield Road are made up largely of social housing with some shops on the main road itself. These form part of the Edenderry and Clonard districts that are also part of the Falls Road. As this area is close to neighbouring loyalist estates a number of peace lines are in existence due to continuing low level violence and vandalism. Ainsworth Avenue, which formerly linked the Springfield Road to the Woodvale Road is closed off as are the points at which Kirk Street and Workman Avenue in the Woodvale area touch Springfield and the parts of the Highfield estate that border the Springfield Road Limited access is still possible through Lanark Way with the street linking the Springfield and Shankill roads, albeit with gates that can be locked. The street was favoured by hitmen associated with the UDA West Belfast Brigade to gain access to the republican districts of the west of the city, notably Stephen McKeag who nicknamed the street the Yellow Brick Road.Other features of the area include Springvale Industrial Estate and Business Park as well as Springfield Park, a small facility maintained by Belfast City Council. The Farset International budget accommodation and conference facility is contained within Springfield Park. Clonard Monastery is also located close to the Springfield Road.
Highfield and New Barnsley
The loyalist Highfield estate borders onto the Springfield Road around West Circular Road and this area provides access to the Ballygomartin Road, a predominantly Protestant area that links to the Shankill Road. Close to the West Circular Road on the Springfield Road is the Whiterock Orange Hall. Parades to and from this hall, which pass areas of Catholic housing, have resulted in tension and rioting from as early as 1970. In October 2005 the hall was targeted in an arson attack.The housing adjacent to Highfield is known as New Barnsley. New Barnsley took its name from a clachan near Springfield Park which was burned down during the Troubles. The area is divided from the Highfield estate by a large peace line that runs the length of the Springmartin Road. New Barnsley Police Service of Northern Ireland station is located at the Springfield Road end of the peace line and is the main police presence on the road following the 2002 closure of the old Springfield Road RUC station.
Ballymurphy and Whiterock
The area between the Springfield Road and the Whiterock Road is commonly known as Ballymurphy after the Ballymurphy Road. Springhill and Glenalina form part of this area. The housing in Ballymurphy was first built in 1947 when the council erected 600 concrete houses on a site acquired to cope with the rising population of the city. The area is bordered by the Whiterock Road, which links the Falls Road with the Ballygomartin Road and intersects the Springfield Road at Ballymurphy. The Whiterock area is older than Ballymurphy, dating back to the 1920s. Previously known as Kill Pipers Hill, the area had belonged to William Sinclair, Lord Glenalina, whose title is commemorated in the area.Springhill Millennium Park, a public facility, is located in this area, and Belfast City Cemetery is also located in the Whiterock area. Whiterock Leisure Centre, located on the Whiterock Road, was in 1984 the scene of a notorious incident when, following the erection of an Irish tricolour, Democratic Unionist Party politician George Seawright led a group of loyalists, including UVF members John Bingham and William 'Frenchie' Marchant, wielding legally held handguns to physically remove it. Such were the levels of poverty in the area that in 1971 Mother Teresa established a religious mission in Ballymurphy and lived in the area for around a year.
Turf Lodge
A further housing estate, Turf Lodge, lies beyond the Springfield Road, sandwiched between the Whiterock Road, the Monagh Bypass and the Glen Road. The area was built in the late 1950s to house excess people from the overcrowded districts of the lower Falls. The area had formerly been occupied by the Turf Lodge Farm and so the name was retained for the new estate. Much of the housing was of a low standard, consisting of blocks of flats and maisonettes, although following a campaign by local women in the 1970s some of the lowest-quality housing stock was demolished and redeveloped. The estate is encircled by ring roads, a state of affairs which has helped to encourage joyriding amongst local "hoods". This in turn engendered a culture of summary justice, where the local PIRA handed out punishment beatings and knee-cappings to those deemed guilty of "antisocial behaviour", in Turf Lodge. During the Troubles an army base, Fort Monagh, was located on the estate.Education
St Clare's Primary School on the lower part of the road was built in 2005 as an amalgamation of two earlier schools. Springfield Primary School, further along the road, dates back to 1910. There are no secondary schools on the road, although there are several on the neighbouring Falls Road. Gort Na Móna Secondary School was located on the road from 1971 to 1988 before closing after merging with other Catholic schools in the area to form Corpus Christi College.A branch of Belfast Metropolitan College is located on the adjacent Whiterock Road whilst St Gerard's Education Resource Centre, a special school, is found on Belfield Heights near where the Springfield Road merges into the Monagh By-pass.
Sport
, a Gaelic Athletic Association whose origins lie in the Turf Lodge area of west Belfast, have their current headquarters on the Springfield Road. Lámh Dhearg GAC are also based in the area, on Hannahstown Hill.Football club Iveagh United F.C., who play in the Northern Amateur Football League, were formed in the area in the early 1960s although they have since left the area and are now based in the Twinbrook area of Dunmurry.
Holy Trinity Boxing Club is located in Turf Lodge and it has developed a strong reputation in amateur boxing, with champions at a variety of age groups fighting out of the club. Damaen Kelly, a double bronze medallist at amateur level and a triple weight champion in the professional game, trained at the club.
Transport
The row of cottages that made up the New Barnsley clachan was formerly the "terminus" for public transport, the limit of local bus services. However Springfield Road is no longer one of the twelve main corridors of Translink, which provides the Metro bus service in Belfast, and the road is served only by the irregular 80 and 81 services.Both the Springfield Road itself and the western parts of Belfast as a whole were noted for their traffic congestion and so in 1978 the Monagh Bypass was opened near Springfield Road to provide an alternative route. The Bypass however is largely unfinished after it was discovered that much of the area around the foothills was impassable and so congestion remains an issue. After the Bypass the Upper Springfield Road marks the beginning of the B38, a minor road that links Belfast with the village of Glenavy.
Politics
The Springfield Road is divided between the Court and Black Mountain District Electoral Areas of Belfast City Council. Court, which includes the Clonard ward covering the lower part of the road, is a mainly Unionist/Loyalist area and in the 2014 election returned Brian Kingston and Frank McCoubrey of the Democratic Unionist Party, Mary McConville and Jim McVeigh of Sinn Féin, Billy Hutchinson of the Progressive Unionist Party and Jolene Bunting of the Traditional Unionist Voice as councillors. Black Mountain however is strongly Nationalist/Republican and elected as its seven councillors Janice Austin, Ciarán Beattie, Arder Carson, Steven Corr and Emma Groves of Sinn Féin, Tim Attwood of the Social Democratic and Labour Party and Gerry Carroll of People Before Profit.The area is covered by the Belfast West constituency for the Parliament of the United Kingdom with the seat represented by Sinn Féin's Paul Maskey, who was elected at a 2011 by-election following the resignation of Gerry Adams to contest a seat in the 2011 Irish general election. The same area is used for the Northern Ireland Assembly with the five seats held by Órlaithí Flynn, Fra McCann, Alex Maskey, Pat Sheehan of Sinn Féin and Gerry Carroll of PBP.
The Workers' Party maintains its northern headquarters near the start of the Springfield Road.