Location
Keadyville (later Keadyville Avenue) was situated off the Shore Road in north Belfast. It formed part of a small late nineteenth-century residential development in the wider Shore Road district.
Origins and meaning of the name
The name “Keadyville” appears to derive from the place-name Keady, County Armagh, combined with the suffix “-ville”, a form commonly used in Victorian-era house and terrace names. This construction is typical of late nineteenth-century suburban developments, where rural Irish place-names were often adopted to lend identity and distinction to new housing.
There is evidence that the name originally applied to a group of houses known as Keadyville Terrace on the Shore Road, rather than to a formally laid-out street. The use of “-ville” supports this interpretation, as it was frequently applied first to terraces or house groups before being regularised as street names.
When it was established
The name Keadyville is firmly attested by the late 1890s. Keadyville Avenue is first recorded in the Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory in 1898. Its use is further confirmed by a letter published in the Belfast News-Letter on Wednesday 4 January 1899, which refers explicitly to “Keadyville Avenue” in the context of paving and lighting works. This indicates that the street name was in recognised local use by early 1899.
The absence of earlier references suggests that Keadyville was a relatively late Victorian development, laid out and named shortly before its first appearance in the directories.
Character and later history
Contemporary newspaper correspondence shows that Keadyville Avenue was still undergoing infrastructural development at the turn of the twentieth century, with issues such as paving, parapets, and lighting being raised by residents. This places it firmly within the phase of late nineteenth-century suburban expansion along the Shore Road.
The original terrace-based development implied by the name “Keadyville” appears to have been absorbed into the formal street system as Keadyville Avenue. As with many small late Victorian streets, later redevelopment and changes to the local street pattern have reduced its prominence in the modern city.
Sources
Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory, 1898.
Belfast News-Letter, Wednesday 4 January 1899.
Late nineteenth-century Belfast street directories.
Historic newspaper correspondence and mapping relating to the Shore Road district.