SPECULATION is mounting that a prime site on the Andersonstown Road has been purchased for the development of a museum dedicated to the 1981 hunger strike which claimed the lives of ten men, including West Belfast's Bobby Sands, Joe McDonnell and Kieran Doherty.
The plot of land includes the former Sinn Féin centre at Connolly House, the former offices of McCormick solicitors and a private residence which was once home to the McCaffrey family.
It is understood that no planning application has yet been made for the parcel of land which was originally put on the market as a potential site for housing. However, an inability to augment the site by adding the St Agnes' parish house on the same row diminished interest in the sale and the plot of land was eventually taken off the market.
However, it now appears that the site has been acquired by a community body which aims to reimagine the space as a development with a tourism element linked to the conflict and the peace process.
Such an initiative would be rooted in the iconic images of what was then Dr McGarry's surgery and later Connolly House behind the IRA colour party which fired a salute over the coffin of hunger striker Joe McDonnell. IRA volunteers fired a volley of shots in a final salute to Bobby Sands just yards from the site now earmarked for development.
FINAL SALUTE: The IRA colour party at Bobby Sands' funeral
It's believed the promoters of the new development also envisage a commercial element on the site which could deliver a return to the local community for years to come.
A source told the Andersonstown News that the first step in the ambitious development was to secure the site. "That has now been achieved with the properties and land now in community hands," our source said. "The next stage is to come up with a plan which will do justice to the legacy of the hunger strikers while also being able to generate income — not least from tourism — which will ensure the project has legs and will endure for many, many years to come."
