Finaghy

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Finaghy(from the Irish: Fionn Achaidh meaning "White Meadow") is an area of south Belfast, Northern Ireland. There has been a small community in the area since the 1600s, and it has been involved in the production of linen, which was key to the Lagan Valley area at the time. Finaghy is also an electoral ward of South Belfast.

In the 1930s, the community gradually started to grow; the local Presbyterian church was founded in 1936. In the 1950s, the city of Belfast grew outwards. Housing estates were built in Finaghy; which caused the population to at least double. Today 'Finaghy' is used to refer to the area along the Lisburn Road from the Kings Hall at Balmoral Avenue to the start of the Blacks Road and between the Malone Road and the Belfast to Dublin railway line.

The heart of the area is Finaghy crossroads, where the Lisburn Road intersects with Finaghy Road North and South. Here, a group of small businesses have sprung up - there is the local newsagents, Sharlins, now known as the XL stop & shop, a KFC, Subway, a bakery, a Fish & Chip Shop and a First Trust Bank, as well as an Optician's, several Chinese Takeaways, several Off-licence's and a successful Co-Operative Food store (as well as its partner, Co-Operative Travel - formerly known as Travelcare). There are plans to turn the local branch of Iceland into a Marks & Spencer Simply Food store.

Behind the crossroads is the new Finaghy Campus, which houses a freshly built Public Library, the non-denominational Finaghy Primary School and community playing fields. There are filling stations on either side of the heavily built-up crossroads area - Creighton's, and Centra, Finaghy.

Today, Finaghy is home to various Protestant congregations - Presbyterian, Methodist, Church of Ireland and Baptist - as well as a large Roman Catholic congregation in nearby Dunmurry. As well as the older Presbyterian Church, which now has a new Community Centre, there is a relatively modern Methodist Church which has a representation of Jacob's ladder in its skyline. The Church of Ireland church is dedicated to St. Polycarp. St. Anne's RC Parish Church and Centre is nestled opposite the top of the Black's Road. St. Anne's Primary School, Roman Catholic, said by some to be the largest primary school in the United Kingdom, is situated next to it. Behind the St. Anne's "campus" lies Rathmore Grammar School, which is also Roman Catholic.

The name Finaghy is translates from Irish into English as "Whitefield". It is uncertain how the area came by this name. Some people believe it comes from the practice of bleaching the linen white in the sun. However traditional Irish myth places the White Castle of King Lear (often confused with the Irish Genitive form "Lir"), the father of the Swan children, at the site of modern day Finaghy, and so believe Whitefield comes from the White Castle.

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Electoral Wards of Belfast, Northern Ireland
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