Rathcoole (Newtownabbey)

Rathcoole (from Irish Ráth Cúile, meaning 'corner/nook of the ringfort') is a housing estate in Newtownabbey, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was built in the 1950s to house many of those displaced by the demolition of inner city housing in Belfast city. Rathcoole is within the wider Newtownabbey Borough. Its approximate borders are provided by the O'Neill Road on the north, Doagh Road on the east, Shore Road on the south and the Church Road and Merville Garden Village on the west.

In the 1940s and 1950s, a number of new large-scale housing schemes were planned for Northern Ireland including Craigavon and Rathcoole.

These plans were informed by attempts by successive UK governments and the local parliament at Stormont to use large-scale social engineering to reduce underlying sectarian tensions in Northern Ireland. In common with other such areas, Rathcoole's design included self-contained facilities such as a cinema, youth centre, a shopping centre and schools. In spite of these planned facilities, it has been acknowledged that they were insufficient for a population that grew rapidly to over 10000. The cinema had been shut down and a taxi service had taken over the west wing of the building; since then, the building had been demolished and a new 'bar' built on its grounds; the taxi service has moved to the 2nd floor in the Diamond. Other housing developments were built near: Rushpark, Rathfern and Bawnmore, all three constructed by the Northern Ireland Housing Trust, forerunner of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive. Other estates in the district included Merville Garden Village and Fernagh, which were developed privately by Ulster Garden Villages Limited. Since 1 April 1958, Rathcoole and the above estates have been an integral part of Newtownabbey, the first town in Ireland's history to be constituted by an Act of Parliament at Westminster. By 1977, Newtownabbey was given 'borough' status.

A prominent feature of the community is its Protestant churches. In the original design, a local council bye-law prohibited premises selling alcohol within the bounds of the estate. In the early decades, most of the commerce in the area was dominated by nearby Belfast, easily accessible by bus and public taxi services. Since the late 1970s, local shopping opportunities have been developed on what was a largely green field site centred around the Abbeycentre which has grown rapidly with the addition of many satellite trading centres including large DIY stores and most of the major UK high street retailers.

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