A vital community hub situated in the foothills of the Black Mountain is celebrating its 50th anniversary this month. Newhill Youth and Community Centre in Upper Springfield has been bringing the community together and supporting its residents for half a century. 

Established in 1972, the centre was built by local people to provide a safe space for kids to play. Until the 1990s, the centre was completely voluntary, run by members of the local community.

Today, the centre has gone from strength to strength, with employed members of staff, funding and resources. The centre provides a safe space for children seven evenings a week in addition to being a community hub.

Manager at Newhill Youth and Community Centre, Niall Mc Ionnrachtaigh, spoke about the many amenities available within the stunning, modern building.

“The centre opens for young people seven evenings a week. We’re not only a youth centre, but a general community hub as well," he said.

"We have Action Ability Belfast who use the project every morning. We also have a homework club, mentoring programmes in the afternoon for young people who may be more socially vulnerable and socially isolated. We have 55 women who use the centre every morning, all different groups. We have Ballymurphy Women’s Group, Moyard Women’s Group and Dermot Hill, New Barnsley, Springhill, who all use the centre. It has played a really crucial role particularly for them coming out of Covid and isolation, so it’s became a real central hub for people to meet.

“We also have a health and wellbeing programme. The programme supports 35 people in building their skills and helps overcome social, emotional, physical or health issues that they’re experiencing. That has been a real positive.”

Niall says their location is one of the most important elements of the centre.

"It’s obviously at the foot of the black mountain which provides a unique and beautiful backdrop, so we try our best to use the mountain, not only for recreation, but for education. We have partners with Aaron Kelly from Black Mountain Rewilding Project and Belfast Hills Partnership. We also have a very close partnership with Glór na Móna who are an Irish medium provider, and they would be our main partner in our May time health and wellbeing festival which is Féile na gCloigíní Gorma.”

Niall who was born and reared in Dermot Hill says the centre “would have played a very important role when we were growing up in the 1980s, when there was nothing".

Newhill Youth and Community Centre at the foothills of the Black Mountain
2Gallery

Newhill Youth and Community Centre at the foothills of the Black Mountain

“It was formed in 1972 by local women and men – women obviously playing a very prominent role – and it was to provide a space for kids to come and play," he continued.

“Right up until the late 80s, early 90s, Newhill Youth and Community Centre was completely voluntary ran. There weren’t employees, there wasn’t staff. It was summer schemes, short term pots of funding. It was run by, when I was growing up, women like Eilish Reilly, Geraldine O’Regan, Moira Farrell, and others who really led the way in terms of providing space.

“We very much see ourselves at Newhill Youth and Community Centre as standing on the shoulders of those local people who really built the place.”

Newhill is monumental in that it is one of the first youth and community facilities of its kind in West Belfast. The name reflects the purpose of the centre, bringing people together, as the title Newhill combines New Barnsley and Dermot Hill and it is situated between the two locations.

Looking towards the next 50 years of the centre, Niall says the core concepts of what they will do won't change.

“It’s bringing people together, trying to build capacity of people so they can live happy, content, healthy lives and that’s really what Newhill Youth and Community Centre is all about. It was what it was about in 1972, '82, '92, and what it will always be about.