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Springhill Community House is Celebrating 50 years of delivering much needed education and health services at the heart of the Community. To celebrate our achievements and thank our community we held a Back to the Future Fun Day featuring some 1970's festival favourites including football, cribby, rounders, 50+ tea party, bingo, bouncy castles and a wheelie bin race. Marty McFly & Doc Brown would be proud of our Back to the Future Fun day and what a day it was. We had sunshine a beautiful location at the foot of the Black mountain and a fantastic community who took part,…

It was great to see so many friends at the launch of The People's Archive - Fr Des Wilson in Conway Education Centre. As well as an amazing exhibition of posters, photographs, and artifacts we were treated to a presentation by Springhills archivist Tiarnan O'Muilleoir who gave an outline of the archive project and examples of the archive material. The archive project will catalogue Fr Des' collection of correspondence, books, orals histories, videos, sound recordings and photographs. These will then be digitised and made accessible for historians and researchers as well as the general public. In the long term, we…

Remembering Noelle on the 8th anniversary of her passing. Noelle Ryan was a remarkable human being who always saw the good in people. She dedicated her life to the service of the people of Belfast. Originally from Dublin Noelle joined a Domician convent in Drogheda, it was an enclosed order that had no direct communication with the outside world, a life of contemplation and prayer. For anyone who knew Noelle that was never the order for her. She left after 6 years and became a street sister working in Lourdes, Liverpool, Dublin before arriving in Belfast. She met Fr Des…

In August, 1966, at a few days' notice, Bishop William Philbin removed Fr Des Wilson from his post as Spiritual Director at St. Malachy's College and sent him to St. John's on the Falls Road - as a junior curate with responsibility for Whiterock-Ballymurphy, one of the most deprived areas in Western Europe at the time. Des was not prepared for the level of poverty and the culture shock that his new appointment would bring. He was appalled by the living conditions, social deprivation, unemployment and standard of housing due to years of official neglect. He found that his parishioners…

Brief Summary of Justice Keegan's verdict. INNOCENT INNOCENT INNOCENT INNOCENT INNOCENT INNOCENT INNOCENT INNOCENT INNOCENT INNOCENT Fr Hugh Mullan & Frank Quinn both were "innocent men" , use of force was "clearly disproportionate" and violation of article 2, investigation was inadequate. They were shot by the military and were unarmed. Joan Connolly, Noel Philips, Joseph Murphy and Danny Teggart, "no justifaction for their deaths" . "There was a basic inhumanity for leaving Mrs Connolly in the field for so long." Some soldiers were "triumphalist" and "heavy handed" to the bodies brought into the Henry Taggart Hall. "Deaths were a violation…

Great oaks from little acorns grow. "Just as the acorn contains the mighty oak tree, the Self has everything it needs to fulfill its destiny. When the inner conditions are right, it naturally emerges." Derek Rydall This is National Tree Week, 21st - 27th March 2021. Organised by the Tree Council of Ireland and Coillte, to raise awareness for tree protection, the theme of this year's event is 'Healthy Trees Healthy Planet'. Trees act like the lungs of the earth. They help the planet breathe by turning carbon dioxide into clean, pure oxygen. Trees and forests around the world also…

Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona daoibh. The story of Saint Patrick is fascinating from boy slave to Patron Saint of Ireland. He was born into either a Scottish or English family in the fourth century. He was captured as a teenager by Niall of the Nine Hostages who was to become a King of all Ireland. He was sold into slavery in Ireland and put to work as a shepherd. He worked in terrible conditions for six years drawing comfort in the Christian faith that so many of his people had abandoned under Roman rule. Patrick had a dream that encouraged…

Springhill Community House were delighted to welcome Dominic and Kerry from the Community Rescue Service to collect aromatherapy packs for their volunteers. The Community Rescue Service is a Charitable organisation operated by volunteers from communities across Northern Ireland. They are doing an amazing job and we were delighted to thank them for what they do. Congratulations also to all the 100 mile challengers who raised an astonishing fifty thousand pounds in support the service and in memory of wee Cub. Someone described them as earth angles and I think you'll agree that's a fitting description. We also unveiled the banner…