Building the Gaeltacht Quarter
- Submitting institution
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University of Ulster
- Unit of assessment
- 13 - Architecture, Built Environment and Planning
- Output identifier
- 86139682
- Type
- K - Design
- Open access status
- -
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2020
- URL
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https://pure.ulster.ac.uk/en/publications/building-the-gaeltacht-quarter
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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A - Architecture Research Group (ARG)
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Can architecture grant the possibility of a positive role in the creation of culture in the Gaeltacht Quarter and can it contribute to staking out new ground by using the Irish language as the centre of gravity culturally?
The Gaeltacht Quarter is located in west Belfast, an area once deemed ‘beyond the pale’, and is an initiative rooted to a small group of eight families. The first priority of those who founded the 1960s Irish language community, was communication and they engaged with their English-speaking neighbours seeking to make a difference within the neighbourhood. They held classes, wrote plays, organised events and worked to help neighbours, including the re-building of Bombay Street (1969 /1970). They were social and economic entrepreneurs.
For them, old rural practices of collectively working and co-operating to undertake key tasks at important times, was complemented by a firm belief in a self-help ethos that had its roots in the mid-nineteenth century work of reformist Scottish journalist and Chartist, Samuel Smiles.
In the context of a narrowing of community their endeavours inspired a generation to imagine, develop and build schools, businesses, cultural centres, radio stations and sports complexes, growing to in excess of 50,000 pupils in the Irish education sector.
The Gaeltacht Quarter sets an example of how neighbourhoods can connect to the centre, and to other areas. It makes new ground by using the language as the foundation stone to build cultural and business initiatives as a stable, organic economic system that sustains people and is reflective of their needs and ambitions. It is an emerging model of partnering with the public sector, exploring urban hybridity to its fullest potential.
Peer-recognition and architectural awards for many of the key buildings recognises the value that architects can add to a neighbourhood with unique cultural and educational vision.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -