Creggan, Derry

Creggan' (Irish: An Creagán; meaning stony place) is a large housing estate in Derry in Northern Ireland. It is situated on the outskirts of the city and is built on a hill. It is the largest housing estate in the city of Derry in terms of population and not electoral wards, which splits Creggan into three and makes Shantallow the largest ,as that incorporates other housing estates into one, including Galliagh and Carnhill.

The housing estate is very close to the border with County Donegal. The estate is often referred to by people from outside Derry as "the Creggan", this causes anger to those from the Estate as there is no prefix to Creggan.

Creggan was originally built specifically to provide housing for the growing population of Londonderry. There was a Nationalist majority in the city, but the Unionist minority Londonderry Corporation wanted to ensure they kept control of the city. When the Bogside became overcrowded in the 1940s-1960s, the Corporation agreed to put Nationalist and mainly Catholic families in housing, in the same ward as the Bogside. This ensured continued Unionist control of the Londonderry Corporation. This process is known as gerrymandering.

As well as the use of gerrymandering by the Corporation, there was also the use of 'restricted franchise' by the Government, where only rate payers had the right to vote. Usually the male head of a family (or matriarch if the male was dead), the person in whose name the rent book was held, was registered to vote. No other adult in the same household could vote. Middle class and upper class people who owned more than one property in the city had the right to vote more than once.

While this political dimension was important, it was the lack of suitable housing for people, mainly Nationalists, which was the most pressing problem, with married couples living with their parents or with family who had housing in the new estates. This type of social injustice gave rise to the civil rights movement in the city in the 1960s.

The civil rights movement that was occurring in Northern Ireland in the late 60s, took place consistently in Derry. This led to an outbreak of violence between the police, local Unionist Supporters and Nationalists. Violence in the city originally started in the Bogside but quickly spread out to the rest of the city, which included Creggan. One of these occurrences during 12–14 August 1969 became known as the Battle of the Bogside. A disagreement over defending Nationalists from British State forces and elements of Unionism led to a split in the IRA, and the two new paramilitary organizations became known as the Official IRA and Provisional IRA.

...
Wikipedia