placenamesLower Green Island
Inis Glas Íochtarach
A vanished Shore Road house and the growth of schools and housing trace the changing character of lower Greenisland.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Inis Glas Íochtarach · Irish · main form · validated name
- Lower Green Island · English · main form
Place & story
A house beside the shore
Silverstream House once stood in its own grounds beside Shore Road. The historic buildings survey described a house of about 1830, with two storeys, five bays and a porch at the centre of its west-facing front. It was never listed and had been demolished by the November 2008 survey. The surviving official record preserves the outline of a lost local building. [2]
Factories and new housing
Greenisland's development framework connects its postwar expansion with employment at Courtaulds and easier journeys to Belfast and Carrickfergus. The Northern Ireland Housing Trust initially planned 900 homes for the upper estate in 1957–58. A further stage followed the opening of the nearby ICI factory in 1963, when demand for housing led to development of the lower estate. [3]
Building a school and church
St. Colman's Primary School opened in Greenisland on 23 August 1961 with three teachers. The parish history places this provision within the pressures created by industrial growth and arriving families. Five more classrooms were added in 1969, and St. Colman's Church opened that October. By 1972, the school had 329 pupils, showing how quickly the new educational provision had grown. [4]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Lower Green Island. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Silverstream House, HB22/02/001 · Department for Communities, Historic Environment Division
- Greenisland Development Framework, historical context, section 2.2 · Mid and East Antrim Borough Council
- A short history of our parish, A time for growth · Hugh Donnelly, Parish of Carrickfergus and Whitehead
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2021-05-26. How this page was prepared.