Creggan, Derry
Encyclopedia
Creggan is a large housing estate in Derry
Derry
Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...

 in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...

. It was the first housing estate built in Derry specifically to provide housing for the Catholic majority. It is situated on the outskirts of the city and is built on a hill. The name Creggan is derived from the Gaelic word creagán meaning stony place. The housing estate
Housing estate
A housing estate is a group of buildings built together as a single development. The exact form may vary from country to country. Accordingly, a housing estate is usually built by a single contractor, with only a few styles of house or building design, so they tend to be uniform in appearance...

 is very close to the border with County Donegal
County Donegal
County Donegal is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Border Region and is also located in the province of Ulster. It is named after the town of Donegal. Donegal County Council is the local authority for the county...

. The estate is often referred to locally as the Creggan.

Secondary

  • St Cecilia's College
    St Cecilia's College
    St Cecilia's College is a secondary school located in Derry, Northern Ireland. It is a Catholic-maintained girls school with an enrolment of 947 pupils aged 11–18 and is located in the Northland Road area of Derry. It has 60 teaching staff. The college has decanted to the Northland Road to...

  • St. Joseph's Boys' School
  • St. Mary's Girls School
  • St. Peter's High School

Places of interest

  • Graveyard - Derry's largest graveyard.
  • Creggan Country Park - recreation centre.
  • Murals commemorating the 1972 Olympics in Munich.
  • Bishop's Field - Astro-Turf pitch.
  • Corn Beef Tin - Ration Distribution Point (Free Meat Chunks in gravy)

Notable people from Creggan

  • Mickey Bradley
    Michael Bradley (musician)
    Michael "Mickey" Bradley is the bassist for Northern Ireland pop-punk band, The Undertones. He also is a radio producer for BBC Radio Foyle. Bradley presents a one hour programme on Radio Ulster, "After Midnight with Mickey"...

    , bass guitarist with The Undertones
    The Undertones
    The Undertones are a punk rock/new wave band formed in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1975.The original line-up of the Undertones released thirteen singles and four studio albums — The Undertones , Hypnotised , Positive Touch and The Sin of Pride — before disbanding in July 1983.Music guide Allmusic...

  • Liam Ball
    Liam Ball
    Liam Ball was an Irish Olympic swimmer at both the 1968 Mexico City and 1972 Munich Olympic Summer Games, competing for the Republic of Ireland in the Men's 100 metres Breaststroke and Men's 200 metres Breaststroke at each. He was born in Derry, Northern Ireland and was a past pupil of St...

     - Irish Olympic swimmer
  • Dana
    Dana Rosemary Scallon
    Dana Rosemary Scallon , known in her singing career simply as Dana, is an Irish singer and former Member of the European Parliament ....

     – Pop star, Ireland's first Eurovision song contest winner and politician
  • Michael Devine - Hunger Striker
    1981 Irish hunger strike
    The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during The Troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976, when the British government withdrew Special Category Status for convicted paramilitary prisoners...

    .
  • Don Mullan
    Don Mullan
    Don Mullan is an Irish bestselling author/humanitarian and media producer. His book Eyewitness Bloody Sunday is officially recognised as a primary catalyst for a new Bloody Sunday Inquiry which became the longest running and most expensive in British Legal History...

     - Author.
  • Professor Dean Eugene Power - Physicist with BSc (Hons) MSc PHd from Liverpool John Moores University
  • Charlie Nash
    Charlie Nash
    Charlie Nash, born in Derry, Northern Ireland, in 1951, is a retired boxer. As an amateur he held an Irish national title and represented Ireland in the 1972 Olympic Games. As a professional he won the professional British and then European lightweight titles but lost to Jim Watt, when he...

     - Boxer.
  • Raymond Gilmour
    Raymond Gilmour
    Raymond Gilmour is a former Irish National Liberation Army and Provisional Irish Republican Army volunteer who worked clandestinely from 1977 until 1982 for the Royal Ulster Constabulary within those paramilitary organisations...

     - undercover Royal Ulster Constabulary
    Royal Ulster Constabulary
    The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the name of the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2000. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, it was subsequently known as the Royal Ulster Constabulary GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 out of the Royal Irish Constabulary...

     (R.U.C.) member (also known as a Supergrass
    Supergrass (informer)
    Supergrass is a slang term for an informer, which originated in London. Informers had been referred to as "grasses" since the late-1930s, and the "super" prefix was coined by journalists in the early 1970s to describe those informers from the city's underworld who testified against former...

    ) who prevented Irish National Liberation Army
    Irish National Liberation Army
    The Irish National Liberation Army or INLA is an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group that was formed on 8 December 1974. Its goal is to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a socialist united Ireland....

     (I.N.L.A.) and Provisional IRA attacks throughout The Troubles
    The Troubles
    The Troubles was a period of ethno-political conflict in Northern Ireland which spilled over at various times into England, the Republic of Ireland, and mainland Europe. The duration of the Troubles is conventionally dated from the late 1960s and considered by many to have ended with the Belfast...

    .
  • Terry Harkin
    Terry Harkin
    John Terence Harkin is a former footballer who played as a centre forward. He was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, and played for the Northern Ireland national football team.-Club career:...

     - International Footballer
  • James McClean - Professional Footballer
  • Nano McClean - James McClean's uncle

2001 Census

Two wards in Derry have the name Creggan- Creggan Central and Creggan South.

Creggan Central and South are classified by the NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) as being within Derry Urban Area (DUA). On Census day (29 April 2001) there were 3,504 people living in Creggan Central and 2,453 people living in Creggan South.

Of those living in Creggan Central:
  • 34.1% were aged under 16 years and 9.1% were aged 90 and over
  • 46.5% of the population were male and 53.5% were female
  • 98.7% were from a Catholic
    Catholic
    The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

     background and 0.9% were from a Protestant
    Protestantism
    Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

     background
  • 12.5% of people aged 16–74 were unemployed


Of those living in Creggan South:
  • 30.2% were aged under 16 years and 15.6% were aged 60 and over
  • 45.6% of the population were male and 54.4% were female
  • 98.8% were from a Catholic
    Catholic
    The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

     background and 0.9% were from a Protestant
    Protestantism
    Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

     background
  • 10.0% of people aged 16–74 were unemployed


For more details see: NI Neighbourhood Information Service

NIMDM Deprivation 2005

Of 582 wards in Northern Ireland, Creggan Central is the 11th most deprived while Creggan South is ranked 15th.

For more details see: NI Neighbourhood Information Service

Further reading

Extracts from - 'Creggan: more than a history' by Michael McGuinness and Garbhan Downey (2000). ISBN 0-946451-59-1.

'Off Broadway' by Garbhan Downey (Guildhall Press, 2005). A series of humorous short stories set in post-ceasefire Creggan.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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