Springfield Road
[1] The area would later become industrialised with James Mackie & Sons establishing a textile factory on the road in the late nineteenth century.
As this area is close to neighbouring loyalist estates a number of peace lines are in existence due to continuing low level violence and vandalism.
[15] 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.
[22] The estate is encircled by ring roads, a state of affairs which has helped to encourage joyriding amongst local "hoods".
[23] This in turn engendered a culture of summary justice, where the local PIRA handed out punishment beatings and knee-cappings to those deemed guilty of "antisocial behaviour", in Turf Lodge.
[29] Gort na Mona GAC, a Gaelic Athletic Association whose origins lie in the Turf Lodge area of west Belfast, have their current headquarters on the Springfield Road.
[34] Damaen Kelly, a double bronze medallist at amateur level and a triple weight champion in the professional game, trained at the club.
[35] The row of cottages that made up the New Barnsley clachan was formerly the "terminus" for public transport, the limit of local bus services.
The Springfield Road is divided between the Court and Black Mountain District Electoral Areas of Belfast City Council.
[39] Black Mountain however is strongly Nationalist/Republican and elected as its seven councillors Janice Austin, Ciarán Beattie, Arder Carson, Steven Corr and Emma Groves of Sinn Féin, Tim Attwood of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and Gerry Carroll of People Before Profit (PBP).
[41] The same area is used for the Northern Ireland Assembly with the five seats held by Órlaithí Flynn, Fra McCann, Alex Maskey, Pat Sheehan of Sinn Féin and Gerry Carroll of PBP.
[43][44] Rioting returned the following year with fierce fighting occurring at the interface between Catholic Ballymurphy and the then Protestant New Barnsley areas.
Although the bands left without incident crowds of angry residents gathered in Ballymurphy and a unit of the Scots Guards was deployed in preparation for trouble later that night.
When the bands returned sectarian clashes broke out and soon developed into a full-scale riot as the soldiers struggled to maintain order.
Three nights of rioting followed, with the army make heavy use of CS gas canisters and grenades in a largely unsuccessful attempt to break up the crowds.
[48] New Barnsley Protestants mostly settled in houses left vacant by fleeing Catholics in the Greater Shankill and vice versa.
The killings were carried out by members of the Parachute Regiment of the British Army who maintained that they were only returning fire after being shot at by republicans.
[56][57] One such event occurred on 25 May 1971 when a bomb was thrown into the base, killing army Sergeant Michael Willetts as he shielded civilians from the blast with his body.
[64][65] An Ulster Defence Regiment soldier was also killed on the road by Irish National Liberation Army on 29 September 1981.
Under Charles Harding Smith the UDA, in their initial claimed role of defending Protestant communities were the first to erect temporary barricades on Ainsworth Avenue blocking the route between the Shankill and Springfield roads.
On 13 September 1972 the UDA opened fire inside the Catholic-owned Divis Castle Bar on Springfield Road, killing the owner's son.
[78] On 5 September 1973 the UDA, under its Ulster Freedom Fighters code name, claimed responsibility for a no warning car bomb that caused extensive damage to property but no loss of life after the area was evacuated.
[72][73] UDA hitman Sam McCrory was given his first assignment and on 9 October 1987, Francisco Notarantonio, a 66-year-old who had been interned in 1971[80] but had not been active for more than 40 years, was shot dead at his home in Ballymurphy, in a hit said to have been organised the British agent Brian Nelson.
[89][90] On 10 March 1989 a security guard was killed outside the Orient Bar in an attack claimed by the Protestant Action Force, a UVF cover name.
