page_title: Springfield Road
section_title: Ballymurphy and Whiterock
hierarchical_section_title: Springfield Road / Areas of the Springfield Road / Ballymurphy and Whiterock
caption_attribution_description: English: Whiterock Leisure Centre, as viewed from City Cemetery. Between the Whiterock and Falls roads, Belfast, Northern Ireland/
context_page_description: 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. Parts of the road form an interface area with the neighbouring Ulster loyalist areas of the Greater Shankill and it was the site of much activity during the Troubles. The Springfield Road includes the Ballymurphy and New Barnsley districts and is overlooked by Black Mountain and Divis.
context_section_description: 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 William Sinclair, Lord Glenalina, whose title is commemorated in the area.
  Springhill Millennium Park, a public facility, is located in this area whilst 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.
caption: Whiterock leisure centre as viewed from the cemetery
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