Sandy Row

Neighborhood in Belfast

Sandy Row is in south Belfast, beginning at the edge of the city centre, close to the Europa Hotel. The road runs south from the Boyne Bridge over the old Dublin railway line beside Great Victoria Street station, then crosses Donegall Road and ends at the bottom of Lisburn Road. At the north end of the road was Murray's tobacco factory, opened in 1810, while at the other is a large Orange hall.

Formerly known as Carr's Row, Sandy Row is one of the oldest residential areas of Belfast. Its growth in population was in large part due to the expansion of the linen industry in Rowland Street. The name Sandy Row derived from the sandbank which abutted the road that followed the high water mark resulting from the flow off the tidal waters of the Lagan River estuary. For over two thousand years, the road along the sandbank was the principal thoroughfare leading south from Carrickfergus. In addition to the arches spanning the road, buildings and homes are decorated with flags, bunting and banners. The first Orange Arch was erected by Frank Reynolds in about 1921. In 1690, on his way south to fight at the Battle of the Boyne, King William III of England and his troops travelled along Sandy Row. In 1996, the Sandy Row Community Forum was established. It acts as an umbrella organisation for all the community groups in the area.

During The Troubles, the area had a strong Ulster Defence Association (UDA) presence. Sandy Row is part of the UDA South Belfast Brigade, commanded for many years by the late John McMichael and currently by Jackie McDonald. Its first known commander was Sammy Murphy who also led the Sandy Row UDA. He engaged in talks with the British Army during the Ulster Workers Council Strike in May 1974 to defuse a potentially violent confrontation between the Army and UDA over street barricades that had been erected in Sandy Row. In December 1972, senior UDA member Ernie Elliott was shot dead outside a Sandy Row club by a fellow UDA man after a drunken brawl. On 7 February 1973, Brian Douglas, a Protestant fireman from Sailortown was shot to death by the UDA whilst fighting a fire caused by street disturbances in Bradbury Place. Sandy Row UDA members also launched a series of attacks on nearby Durham Street, a mainly Catholic area between Sandy Row and Falls Road, in the early 1970s with four Catholics killed in the area, including 16 year old Bernard McErlain, in late March–April 1973. Two Protestant civilian men were killed on 30 March 1974 in a no warning bomb attack carried out by an unknown republican paramilitary group against the Crescent Bar. On 24 July 1974, Ann Ogilby, a 32 year old Protestant single mother of four, was savagely beaten to death with bricks and sticks inside the disused Warwick's bakery in Hunter Street by two teenagers from the Sandy Row women's UDA unit, commanded by Elizabeth "Lily" Douglas. The bakery had been converted to a UDA club. Ogilby's six year old daughter was outside the door and overheard her mother's screams inside whilst loud disco music played. Ogilby had been "sentenced to death" at a kangaroo court presided over by eight UDA women after it was discovered she was having an affair with a senior UDA man, who was married to one of the unit's members. She had also made defamatory remarks about her lover's wife. On 30 January 1976, the Provisional IRA exploded a car bomb outside the Klondyke Bar on the corner of McAdam Street. John Smiley, a middle aged Protestant civilian was killed outright in the blast. Many people inside the pub suffered serious injuries including a barmaid who lost an eye, Vina Galaway. Less than two years before the attack, the Klondyke Bar was the subject of a photographic essay by Bill Kirk in a series of photographs taken in Sandy Row. The Klondyke had been built in 1872. In the same year of the Klondyke bombing, an 18 year old Catholic girl had her throat slit behind a Sandy Row pub by loyalist paramilitaries after she had been discovered drinking inside with Protestant friends. Thomas Vance, one of the 18 British soldiers killed in the Warrenpoint ambush, was a native of Sandy Row. The large Ulster Freedom Fighters mural was one of many loyalist murals found in Sandy Row; it could be seen from the northern end of the street. It was announced in June 2012 that the mural would be painted over with another showing William of Orange. The announcement was made by Jackie McDonald following a year of talks with residents and business leaders, some of whom claimed that the presence of the mural was dissuading other businesses from settling in office blocks nearby. It was removed on 25 June and replaced with the mural depicting William of Orange. Sandy Row contains a loyalist souvenir shop, the "One Stop Ulster Shop", which sells UDA and Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) paraphernalia. The John McMichael Centre (named after the former South Belfast UDA leader) which helps former loyalist prisoners, is also located on Sandy Row.

The Sandy Row Neighbourhood Renewal Area (NRA) was designated by the Department for Social Development in 2004, with boundaries extending along the Westlink, Donegall Road and Great Victoria Street. On Census day (29 April 2001) there were a total of 2,153 people living in the Sandy Row NRA. Of these: Linfield's first captain was Sam "Thaw" Torrans. Celebrated snooker champion Alex "Hurricane" Higgins was a native of Sandy Row, having been born in Abingdon Drive, off the Donegall Road. He first started playing at the age of 11 in the Jampot club.