Shankill Road, Belfast
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- For the district of Dublin, see Shankill, Dublin. For the 1918–1922 UK Parliament constituency, see Belfast Shankill (UK Parliament constituency)
The Shankill Road (in Irish, Bóthar na Seanchille) is the arterial road leading through a predominantly Protestant working-class area of Belfast, Northern Ireland, known as the Shankill. The road stretches westwards for approximately 1.5 miles from central Belfast and is lined, to an extent, by shops. The residents live in the many streets which branch off the main road. The area is best known for its murals depicting Unionist sympathies. The Shankill is also an electoral ward of West Belfast.
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[edit] History
When downtown Belfast consisted of marshland and thick woods, the area now known as the Shankill was roamed by wolves and wild boar. The first Shankill residents lived at the bottom of what is now known as Glencairn: a small settlement of ancient people inhabited a ring fort, built where the Ballygomartin and Forth rivers meet.
A settlement around the point at which the Shankill Road becomes the Woodvale Road, at the junction with Cambrai Street, was known as Shankill from the Irish Seanchill meaning 'old church'. This was the site of the medieval parish church which served the area on the west bank of the River Lagan now covered by Belfast.
The area expanded greatly in the mid to late 19th century with the growth of the linen industry. Many of the streets in the Shankill area, such as Leopold Street, Cambrai Street and Brussels Street, were named after places and people connected with Belgium or Flanders, where the flax from which the linen was woven was grown. The linen industry, along with others that had previously been successful in the area, declined in the mid-20th century leading to high unemployment levels, which remain as of 2005.
During The Troubles, the Greater Shankill and its residents were subjected to bombings and shootings by Irish republican paramilitary forces, the most notable of which is now known as the 'Shankill Bomb'. On the afternoon of Saturday, 23 October 1993, the a bomb exploded in Frizzells Fish Shop. The IRA claimed they were targeting a Loyalist meeting above the fish shop when the bomb exploded as it was being planted; nine civilians were killed in addition to one of the bombers, Thomas Begley. Begley's accomplice Sean Kelly survived, and was later released early from prison, he was re-arrested later for a breach of his licence as he was deemed a danger to the public [1]. During Thomas Begley's funeral, Gerry Adams, President of Sinn Fein and Westminister MP for the area carried the coffin alongside a PIRA colour party.
As Gerry Adams MP refuses to take the oath of allegiance to the Queen which is required, to take his seat in the Commons, some of his constituents on the Shankill Road claim that this disenfranchises them in Parliament.[2] As West Belfast is overwhelmingly Nationalist and Adams has a large majority, the people of the Shankill and other unionists in his constituency are unable to make change.
[edit] Today
The area is predominantly Protestant and unionist or loyalist in political orientation. The Shankill is separated from the neighbouring Catholic, nationalist, Falls Road area by peace lines. Greater Shankill has a population of around 22,000. The two areas were focal points of the civil conflict known as The Troubles (1969 – 1998), and many lives have been lost in the sectarian violence. Several loyalist paramilitary groups, such as the UDA and UVF have a presence in the Shankill. The road has been the focus of several power struggles within the loyalist paramilitaries. In 2003 one of these incidents resulted in UDA leader Johnny Adair being evicted from his lower Shankill home.
[edit] Churches
The Shankill is home to several churches of different religious denominations. Situated on the northern boundary is St. Matthew's Church of Ireland, was rebuilt in 1872, taking its name from the original church which had sat in the grounds of the graveyard. The architecture of this church is called trefoil, which means it is built in the shape of a shamrock. The shamrock is the national emblem of Ireland and was supposedly used by St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland to explain the Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
St. Matthew's graveyard has a tombstone in memory of a 14 year-old Royal Air Force member who was killed in the First World War.
There is a book about the church which says that St. Matthew's is actually a copy of a church in Salonika. The rounded "leaves" do not have the indentations of the leaves of the shamrock. The water in the stone outside the front door was thought to cure warts and, certainly up to the 1990s, was considered to cure colic if a new, open, safety pin was thrown in.
[edit] People from the Shankill
- Baroness Blood has lived on the Shankill for 30 years, working as a community officer.
- Barrister and politician Robert McCartney.
- Boxer Wayne McCullough.
- Shankill Butchers member Lenny Murphy.
- Gusty Spence, loyalist politician.
- Jimmy Warnock boxer from 1930's who beat world champion Benny Lynch twice.
- Billy Warnock boxer from 1930's, brother of Jimmy
[edit] Sources
- Paul Hamilton, Up The Shankill, 1979, ISBN 0-85640-178-1
[edit] Education
The school that would serve the wider Shankill area would have been Mount Gilbert Community college but this school is closing after many years of service. However, an alternative to this school is Castle High School which is situated not too far away on Fortwilliam Park off the Shore Road and already has a number of pupils from the Shankill area. This school is rapidly improving and has had major improvements over recent years. Full details can be found on the school website at http://www.castlehigh.ik.org
[edit] External links
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Roads and Motorways in Northern Ireland |
|---|---|
| Motorways: M1 | M2 | M3 | M5 | M12 | M22 | A8(M) | |
| Main 'A' Roads: A1 | A2 | A4 | A5 | A7 | A20 | A24 | A36 | |
| Belfast: Donegall Square | Donegall Road | Falls Road | Malone Road | Shankill Road | Westlink | |
