Location
McCaughan Park is a short residential cul-de-sac off Upper Knockbreda Road in the Cregagh district of East Belfast, near the top of a glen leading down to Ravenhill and Cregagh Roads.
Origins
The street first appears in the 1924 Belfast & Ulster Street Directory and was likely laid out in the early 1920s on former farmland in Knockbreda parish, outside the Belfast municipal boundary. Like many “Parks” of the period, it consisted of a handful of substantial private houses.
Name
Whilst we are not certain about the origins of the name, one possibility is a link to William John McCaughan Girvan (c.1890–1960), an engineer who lived at Ardkeen, McCaughan Park, from the 1920s until his death. Girvan carried McCaughan as a middle name, which may have come from his mother’s family, though this has not been firmly established. The coincidence suggests the developers or early residents may have drawn on this family connection when naming the street. Such naming after proprietors or relatives was common in Belfast’s suburban expansion of the period.
Historical note
William John McCaughan Girvan rose to become City Electrical Engineer and General Manager of Belfast in the 1940s. He oversaw the post-war modernization of the city’s electricity supply, sat on the first Northern Ireland Joint Electricity Committee, and was awarded the OBE in 1950 for public service. He remained at Ardkeen for nearly forty years until his death on 16 October 1960. The Northern Whig death notice recorded him as “William John McCaughan Girvan, O.B.E., suddenly, at a private nursing home, late of Ardkeen, McCaughan Park”.
Why it matters
McCaughan Park illustrates the character of interwar suburban development in East Belfast, and how new streets often reflected the names of the families who built or lived on them, rather than well-known historical figures.
Sources
Belfast & Ulster Street Directories (1918, 1924, 1939, 1947, 1951, 1960) via Lennon Wylie
Northern Whig, 18 Oct 1960 (death notice of William John McCaughan Girvan, O.B.E.)
Belfast Gazette, 9 June 1950 (OBE award to W. J. M. Girvan)
Institution of Electrical Engineers membership lists