The Andytown RUC Barracks

Introduction (Click here or scroll down for Images)

The RUC station stood at the junction of the Glen Road and Falls Road, at the northern end of Andersonstown, in republican west Belfast.

For the early history of the area (the Ballycranocke townland), see this article by Pól Deeds. The map below from roughly the 1860s shows the location of Callender’s Fort, possibly the site of the eponymous crannóg. The junction of the Glen Road and Falls Road is on the right. Andersonstown was Anderson’s Town only twenty years previously. The Anderson in question is unknown; he is presumed to have been a lowland Scot who emigrated to Ireland (PlaceNamesNI).

The Irish Times reports that a police station on the site dates back to circa 1905. Jim Deeds reports his granny’s memory of a two-man police station occupying the spot in the 1930s.

With the Troubles, the station was fenced in, including the car-park in front.

1974 Atown Barracks — (1974 Unattributed X09260)

Over time, the station increasingly came to look like a fortress. Here it is in 1976, with corrugated metal plates, perhaps as a hoarding for the poles being put in place for more permanent fencing. There is an observation post at the point.

1976 ATown Barracks Sands – Harlay — (From the recently-discovered collection of French photographer Gérard Harlay. Bobby Sands is in the foreground.)

In this image from 1979, the fencing has been completed.

Nordirland 1979 — (1979_0365 Copyright Klaus Fröhlich, used by permission)
(See also this youtube footage of the cortège at Bobby Sands’s funeral (in 1981) passing the station).

In 1983 the station was bombed by a 1,000 lb bomb and took one million pounds to repair (Deeds). When it was rebuilt, the station-building itself was almost invisible, completely enclosed on all sides by a high wall topped by a solid metal barrier, itself topped by fencing. Inside, there were lookout posts and surveillance equipment. All of these were indicators of the animosity the station engendered in the local population.

ANDERSONSTOWN_STATION — (image from Architects’ Journal)

After the peace, the station was slated for removal. Graffiti reading “Fágaıgí An Bealach Ag Slóıte Na bhFıann [Leave ye the road to the young warriors]” was painted on the Glen Road side of the station in 2005 (J2365) – the graffitist was arrested.

The station was demolished in 2005.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — (Unattributed X09261. Bobbie Hanvey’s collection contains some images of the last occupants and the station in demolition.)

The site was put up for sale (Irish Times) to private developers. The site, however, was so deeply etched into the consciousness of the locals that it belonged, psychologically, to them (see e.g. this SF press release). The ‘Stop The Sell-Off’ campaign was launched, aimed in particular at then-minister for Social Development (DSD) Margaret Ritchie of the SDLP.

The site itself, now paved over, was used for the campaign. There had been a few pieces on the wall in 2006 but the campaign about the site’s future turned the wall into a site for murals and boards from then on.

Five of the panels on the upper part of the wall were used for this campaign. In the image below, these are “DSD stop the spin”, “Public land for public use”, “Give us back our land”, “Stop the sell-off campaign”, and “Cuır deıreadh leıs an díoladh.” By October of 2007, Carvill had withdrawn their plans.

The upper/right wall in 2008. Glen Road is to the right of frame:

The campaign went on to have the site turned over to the community (Gerry Adams’s blog). There were plans for a “West Belfast Expo Centre” but the competition fizzled out and was replaced by DSD plans for a green space (Architects’ Journal). The wall was still used for CNR boards and murals. Here is the upper wall in 2011:The campaign went on to have the site turned over to the community (Gerry Adams’s blog). There were plans for a “West Belfast Expo Centre” but the competition fizzled out and was replaced by DSD plans for a green space (Architects’ Journal). The wall was still used for CNR boards and murals. Here is the upper wall in 2011:

The site’s development as a park was begun in 2012. The tarmac was torn up and grass planted; around the edge hedge saplings were planted. In subsequent years, trees were added to the interior and a low fence around the perimeter.

The area was renamed Groves-Reilly Corner in January 2019, in honour of activists Emma Groves and Clara Reilly who campaigned for decades against plastic bullets (Groves was blinded in 1972 by a plastic bullet fire by a Paratrooper) and were founder members of Relatives For Justice (web).

Images

Lower/Left wall:
#1 (Two panels of the wall but they have always been treated as one. This is the ‘Sınn Féın’ spot. It is by far the busiest spot on the site, as it is used annually for marches commemorating 1916 and the 1981 hunger strike and in between those times serves as a Sınn Féın noticeboard.)

2006 – Derry City Rally
(no image available)

2008 – Gibraltar 20th

2008 – Éırígí More British Troops
(see Google maps X05746)

2008 – HS March

2009 – Easter Commemoration

2009 – National Hunger Strike Commemoration
(no image available)

[A hoarding is erected in front of the wall.]

2010 – Cumann na mBan/Easter over Hunger Strike march

2010 – Gaza Aid Workers

2010 – Say No To Tory Cuts

D01899 28 dec belfast street art+ — (D01899 X05961)

2011 – Dublin Belfast Cork Donegal (May 5th)

2011 – Save Brendan Lillis over “Vótáil SF on 9th June”

2011 – Towards A New Republic

2011 – McGuinness The People’s President

2012 – Something Inside So Strong

2013 – Belfast Easter Commemoration

2013-2014 Faıgh Do Vóta

2013-2014 – Vótáıl Sınn Féın light blue
(no image available)

2014 – Standing Together Against Racism

2015 – Belfast Easter Commemoration 1916
(no image available)

2015 – Cherish All The Children Of The Nation Equally

2016 – Easter Parade
(no image available)

2016 – Hunger Strike 35th

2017 – Vótáıl Sınn Féın

2017 – Troıd Ar Son Do Chearta

2017 – Thomas Ashe

2019 – Easter Parade
(no image available)

2020 – Time For Truth

04800 2018-02-22 Time For Truth March+ — (X04800 from a different location)

2021 – Comóradh 40 Staılc Ocraıs

2022 – Time To Plan (Sınn Féın)

T01150 2022-10-16 Time To Plan 2+ — (T01150 T01149)

#2
2006 – Revolutionary Party small board on the block wall

2008 – I nDıl Chuımhne Gibraltar on hoarding

2008-2011 – Truth And Justice Now

2014 – Ceartas Anoıs

2014-09-28 CeartasAnois+ — (X02251 | M12361)

2018 – Gibraltar And Milltown

2021 – A New Ireland (SF)

07854-2021-02-24-sf-time-to-plan — (X07854)

2021 – Comóradh 40 Staılc Ocraıs

2022 – HS 41

2025 Easter Commemoration

#3
2006-2020 – Hunger Strikers metalwork

2021 – 2022 Comóradh 40 Staılc Ocraıs

07984-2021-03-23-comoradh-metal — (X07984 T01151)

#4
mostly graffiti in the early years

2012-2015 (then moved to the #8 spot) – No PSNI

2016 – Smash Stormont – éırígí

2017 – Lá Dearg boards (presumably removed from spot #10) over “Smash Stormont – éırígí”

X03974 2016-12-17 GlenRd corner+ — (X03974)

2017 – An Phalaıstín (again, see spot #10) over “Smash Stormont – éirígí”

2018-2019 (then covered with overgrown hedge) – Smash Stormont – éirígí

Middle Wall:
#5
The middle wall was a for a long time something of an eye-sore, covered most of the time in wild-style writing. Circa 2010, this Fıanna Éıreann board was mounted in the middle of the writing: