Craigavon

54.45 - 6.4Koordinaten: 54 ° 27 'N, 6 ° 24 ' W

Craigavon ​​is a city in Northern Ireland in County Armagh. It lies on the southern shore of Lough Neagh and has as Craigavon ​​Urban Area 57 865 inhabitants ( 2001). Throughout the Borough Craigavon, which is managed by Craigavon ​​Borough Council, live about 91,000 people (2008).

History

Craigavon ​​is named after James Craig (1871-1940), the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, who held the title Viscount Craigavon ​​. It was in 1965 raised to the New Town and consists of the towns of Portadown and Lurgan, and the intervening Brownlow and Mandeville. Craigavon ​​has a freeway connection to the M1 Belfast Dungannon.

Craigavon ​​was analogous to the New Towns planned in the British Isles in the 1960s as a New Town. A targeted urban development in rural areas should Belfast relieved and the migration be encouraged in other regions of Northern Ireland. Critics complain that rather a city like ( London) Derry would have suited her unfavorable boundary layer for funding and suspect sectarian political reasons for preferring, as Craigavon ​​is inhabited by Protestants, Catholics of Derry, however.

It is striking in Craigavon ​​systematically planned, independent from the car road network system of bicycle and pedestrian paths, the system of roundabouts instead of traffic lights, the supply of each newly built neighborhood with a from the beginning with the scheduled shopping center, as well as the strict separation of commercial and residential neighborhoods. Craigavon ​​applies, with its many playgrounds as a child-friendly, as well as the residential areas are surrounded by several parks. In addition to shopping the inhabitants are also a leisure center, a community center, artificial lakes, sports fields, as well as in Tannaghmore even a small zoo with gardens available.

The most important employers in this city was scheduled Goodyear in the city operated a plant for the production of V-belts. This work, however, proved to be unprofitable and had to close. In addition, the population projections for Craigavon ​​proven to be overly optimistic, so the city appears overproportioned for the comparatively low population as something. This is not least a result of Flaring since 1969 the Northern Ireland conflict, the more discouraging both investors and immigrants.

In the Portadown Orange Order holds every year in July a march through the city, notably by: the inhabited mainly by Catholics Garvaghy Road, which is perceived by them as a provocation. This march has been banned since 1997. The city government does is to try to counteract the splitting into two camps by cross-community collaborations. The voltage applied between Lurgan and Portadown new city center was largely unfinished and includes only the City Council, the City Court and a shopping center. The confessional conflict also led to a spatial separation in pure Catholics and Protestants pure district. The residents of the city it was hard to identify with the New Town, so that with them " Craigavon ​​" only the name for the new city center is often, while the rest of the city kept their old identity and remained the principal focus for the inhabitants. With the waning of the Northern Ireland conflict is, however, now again a development perspective and in recent years is again an increased migration, especially of young people recorded.

Population

At the 2001 census, 24.5% were from the 57 685 inhabitants of the Craigavon ​​Urban Area under 16 and 17.4 % over 60 years old. 48.4 % were Catholic and 49.1 % Protestant. 4.0% of the population of working age were unemployed.

Twinning

Craigavon ​​is twinned with La Grange ( Georgia).