Rathcoole (Newtownabbey)

Rathcoole (from Irish Ráth Cúile 'corner/nook of the ringfort or Fort of Coole')[1] is a housing estate in Newtownabbey, County Antrim, Northern Ireland.

[2] These plans were informed by attempts by successive UK governments and the local parliament at Stormont to use large-scale social engineering to reduce underlying sectarian tensions in Northern Ireland.

Since 1 April 1958, Rathcoole and the above estates have been an integral part of Newtownabbey, the first town in Ireland's history to be constituted by an Act of Parliament at Westminster.

In the original design, a local council bye-law prohibited premises selling alcohol within the bounds of the estate.

[citation needed] In the early decades, most of the commerce in the area was dominated by nearby Belfast, easily accessible by bus and public taxi services.

Since the late 1970s, local shopping opportunities have been developed on what was a largely green field site centred around the Abbeycentre which has grown rapidly with the addition of many satellite trading centres including large DIY stores and most of the major UK high street retailers.

Towards the end of the 1960s, civil unrest in Northern Ireland known as the Troubles brought about sectarian conflict after a period of reducing community antagonism.

From 1969-73 a common sight on the streets of urban working class areas of Northern Ireland was parties of people moving furniture either by hand or any vehicle they could borrow.

In the early 1970s police were briefly excluded from the area by the Rathcoole Defence Association (RDA), a move that reflected a wider pattern in Northern Ireland.

[3] [4] The Diamond shopping centre suffered from a lack of investment and substantial decline in its environment throughout the 1960s and 1970s and was in need of extensive renovation and reconstruction.

The Stella Maris site has now been redeveloped as a retail park as part of the larger Abbeycentre trading area.

Rathfern Rangers of the Northern Amateur Football League play their home games at the Diamond on Ardmillan Drive in Rathcoole.