Feile Tickets / Belfast Falls Park

The park has many fine mature trees, beautiful flowers, horticultural displays and grassland areas. In June 1866, Belfast Corporation (now Belfast City Council) purchased 101 acres of land on Falls Road from the Sinclair family. Some of the land was set aside for the building of Belfast City Cemetery, but the rest was earmarked for a new park. However, because the land initially fell outside the Belfast city boundary, the area was not considered a public park until the Public Parks (Ireland) Act was passed in 1869. The area, now known as Falls Park, was eventually established in 1873. In 1924, an outdoor swimming pool, known locally as ‘the Cooler’, was added to the park. It cost £3,000 to build and was fed by the Ballymurphy Stream, which still flows through the area today. The pool closed in 1979 for public health reasons.