Resolved that the name Tweskard Park be approved for a new street on the property of the executers of the late Thos. M Greeves, situated off Ballymiscaw Road. (21st September 1937).
There were members of the Greeves family living at Tweskard as far back as 1880. Thomas and his brother John established linen mills in Belfast in the 1860s. The Tweskard names come from the name of the estate/house where the Greeves' lived, and the house in turn was named after an obsolete historic region of north Co. Antrim, centering Coleraine and including Portrush. Tweskard (also spelt Twescard and other variants) was a cantred and also a county in the Anglo-Norman era (12th-14th centuries). It was subsequently replaced by the territory known as the Route. Tweskard is an anglicised form of Ir. An Tuaisceart, "the north". The name comes originally from a population group called Dál nAraide an Tuaiscirt, the northern branch of the Dál nAraide, whose main grouping was settled close to Belfast Lough in the early medieval period (MacCotter, 2008, 230-31). The choice of the name Tweskard for the house seems to imply an antiquarian interest and a connection with the area around Coleraine and Portrush.
"OBITUARY. Mr. T. M. Greeves. We regret to announce the death of Mr. Thomas Malcomson Greeves, who died at his residence, Tweskard, Strandtown, on Sunday, at the age of 90. A man of wonderful business acumen, Mr. T. M. Greeves founded, along with his brother, the late Mr. John Greeves, the firm of J. & T. M. Greeves, spinners, Falls Road. The firm has been existence now for about 60 years, and Greeves’ Mill is one of the largest and best-equipped spinning mills in the North of Ireland. Mr. Greeves retired from taking an active part in the running of the mill some years ago owing his advancing age, but retained to the last his position as senior director. The business will be carried on by the sons of his brother, John Greeves, and by his own sons, Malcolm M'Gregor, Fergus, and Alfred. Two other sons, Ridgway and Leopold, are the head of the prosperous firm Ridgway Greeves & Co., linen manufacturers, in Ormeau Avenue. Another son, Dr. T. Greeves has a successful medical practice in London.
Mr T. M. Greeves, who was kindly and retiring, was extremely popular among a large number of friends, and was resepcted by all who had come into contact with him in the business world. He took no part in public life, but in his modest and unassuming way did much philanthropic work without making a fuss about it.
Great sympathy is felt with his wife and family in their bereavement". Northern Whig - Wednesday 3 December 1924.
Thomas Jackson | Among the branches (a blog on Thomas Jackson and relatives, and some of the houses he designed. See photo of Tweskard.)