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Loyalists Look To Republicans For Tips
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| Culzie | Date: Sunday, 2012-03-18, 10:42 PM | Message # 1 |
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Generalissimo
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| Loyalist heartland looks to republican stronghold for tips on revamping area
By Lesley-Anne McKeown
Thursday, 15 March 2012
A plan to transform the derelict former furniture store Gilpins on Sandy Row, which forms part of a rejuvenation plan for the area, has been welcomed by senior loyalist figure Jackie McDonald
Community leaders on Belfast’s Sandy Row are looking towards republican west Belfast for tips on how to put the “heart and soul” back into their area.
They have been drawing up ambitious plans to transform a derelict former furniture store into a community hub inspired by An Chulturlann on the Falls Road which they hope will be the catalyst for regeneration.
And their dreams for the Gilpins site have moved a step closer to becoming reality after Belfast City Council agreed to fund a £20,000 feasibility study on the redevelopment.
Dr Garnett Busby, operations manager at South Belfast Community Resources, said: “The hope is that we could try and restore the site. There is 45,000 sq ft of retail space and it backs on to Sandy Row.
“We would like to see some retail or social economy type development, with community usage and possibly some social housing on the top floor.
“There may also be the possibility of having some sort of market but we need expertise to help us see what would be financially viable.
“We want a community hub that will help regenerate the area. This community has seen quite a bit of its cultural identity taken away.
“Three paramilitary murals have been taken off the walls and there are plans to change another into a more relevant mural. But they still need to have their culture where the history of the place can be recognised.
“We have been speaking to the tour operators who are concerned about the recent history disappearing but if we had some element of a Chulturlann-type museum then people could come and see the Protestant/loyalist culture.”
The 2.3-acre Gilpins site has been vacant since the shop closed in 2007. It was snapped up a year later by a private developer but controversial plans to build 1,000 apartments, which were opposed by locals, had to be abandoned because of the economic downturn.
It is understood the developer is willing to sell the site.
The Department for Social Development (DSD) and Belfast Regeneration Office (BRO) are currently in the process of procuring consultants to produce a masterplan for Shaftesbury Square and the areas connecting to it — including Sandy Row — and it is thought Gilpins would be included in any list of priorities given its critical location and scale.
Belfast City Council is also undertaking its own regeneration project at Sandy Row as part of the Renewing Routes project.
Senior loyalist figure Jackie McDonald claims redevelopment of the Gilpins site would help put the “heart and soul” back into an area in desperate need of investment.
“People in Sandy Row have been ignored,” he said. “It would help bring people into the area. The people here do not want to lose their identity.
“The tourist trail begins on the Falls Road and when the Maze is developed it will finish there.
“We don’t want people to just go to west Belfast then head straight up the M1. We want visitors to come here and see the history of our culture.
“Sandy Row and the Shankill are two iconic names in Protestant/loyalist culture. But the community has been let down by the powers that be.”
The scheme has cross-party support in Belfast City Hall. Among those who have backed it are Sinn Fein’s Mairtin O Muilleoir.
He said: “I visited Sandy Row at the invitation of Jackie McDonald early last year with representatives of An Chulturlann, the Falls cultural hub, to meet with community leaders and see if we could work with them on their projects.
“I am convinced the investment package for Belfast will not be complete unless it includes newbuild in Sandy Row.
“This is only a baby step forward but at least we are going forward,” said Mr O Muilleoir.
Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news....VTuMWfj
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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| RSAUB | Date: Tuesday, 2012-03-20, 2:02 PM | Message # 2 |
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Colonel general
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| Why the need to approach the IRA/Sinn Fein? Unless he’s looking more cross-community grant money.
It doesn’t take a genius to work out why Sandy Row is in the state it’s in now. It has only a fraction of the population that it once had. Big family run businesses like Gilpins and Reids shoes are a thing of the past, although thankfully Reids is still there. They cannot compete with the retail parks and Sandy row is situated in a part of Belfast where there is a retail park less than half a mile from it on the Boucher Road and in a part of Belfast that is more for social living i.e. bars, restaurants, takeaways and convenience stores.
For the size of the population in the area, I think it’s doing very well in all honesty, and the best way forward has to be to increase our own population in the area with social housing that will also benefit the local businesses with more trade.
A loyalist museum is a good idea, Sandy row is situated beside a youth Hostel and a major hotel, plus has a allens bus tours, which do open top bus tours of Belfast. So there is a possibility of educating visitors to Ulster on our history. However how sustainable it would be I honestly don’t know, Fernhill house was in the perfect place, full of the history of Ulster loyalism from being the training grounds of the old West Belfast Volunteers and it had to shut up shop due to lack of interest/visitors. As sad as it is, with the exception of a few days in July most prods just aren’t interested in their heritage or culture.
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| Culzie | Date: Tuesday, 2012-03-20, 4:32 PM | Message # 3 |
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Generalissimo
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| Think your first line speaks volumes. Says it all.
They talk about a market place and some other things for the Gilpin site. A market might be a good thing but it is another space going which could have been used for housing. I have mixed feeling about it. It seems to me that there are more empty spaces being created or spaces with statues or green areas. I think housing should be the priority and then the open spaces. Yes Sandy Row is maybe getting somewhere at long last with the new house build at Linfield Rd and now at Albion/Scott streets. Lets hope there is no resting on laurels as is usually the way with our folk
Yes agree wholeheartedly with you re the planned museum. I think given where the Row is situated it might have more chance of success than the Fernhill House venture. And yes it is near the Allen tourist tours and also the Hostel which is another plus. That fella from SC would have been a visitor to the museum ( if it had been there then) and I'm sure there are plenty more the same as him.
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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| RSAUB | Date: Wednesday, 2012-03-21, 12:37 PM | Message # 4 |
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Colonel general
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| Indeed housing has to be the priority and from an increase in the population comes a stronger community in terms of numbers and votes etc, and more people means more money spent in the local economy
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| Culzie | Date: Wednesday, 2012-03-21, 8:16 PM | Message # 5 |
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| Think people have been sitting back and taking whats thrown at them for far too long. Have they any spirit,any fight left in them? I believe they have. I hope Iam right and its our turn to be listened to,that our politicans get the message and do something for their people. They have had over 20 years to hide behind direct rule. Nows the time to get off their butts and deliver. But our people will have to give them that message.
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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| RSAUB | Date: Wednesday, 2012-03-21, 10:41 PM | Message # 6 |
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Colonel general
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| Very true, the way things are with the demographics and now power-sharing with the rebels, they will have to earn their votes now, rather than playing on the old them and us card or the sheer fact that we have the majority no longer means success, we only have to look at what's happened in East Belfast and South Belfast as evidence of this.
That all being said, we need our own people to start being pro-active and working in the interests of our community and Country.
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| Culzie | Date: Wednesday, 2012-03-21, 11:28 PM | Message # 7 |
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| Yes RSAUB I agree. It is a struggle to keep on the 'orange brick road' while others seem hellbent on taking us down 'the green brick road'. But we have to keep working away. Keeping at the politicans to do their job. I think the best way to do this as a group.
Community workers/groups seem to be the ones who have the ear of the politicans. A unholy alliance? But we keep the flame burning even if it might be low sometimes. As long as its still lit thats the main thing.
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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| RSAUB | Date: Thursday, 2012-03-22, 2:05 AM | Message # 8 |
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Colonel general
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| That's it we have to keep ploughing on and try and do what we can. The battle isn't over so to speak.
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| Culzie | Date: Friday, 2012-03-23, 4:01 PM | Message # 9 |
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| To true,the fight goes on.
Ulster Protestants consider themselves to be a separate nation. This nation they call Ulster
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