page_title: Falls Road, Belfast
section_title: Churches
hierarchical_section_title: Falls Road, Belfast / Lower Falls / Churches
caption_attribution_description: English: St Peter's Cathedral, Belfast seen from Albert Street. Consecrated in 1866 this is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Down and Connor.
context_page_description: Falls Road is the main road through west Belfast, Northern Ireland, running from Divis Street in Belfast city centre to Andersonstown in the suburbs. The name has been synonymous for at least a century and a half with the Catholic community in the city. The road is usually referred to as the Falls Road, rather than as Falls Road. It is known as the Faas Raa in Ulster-Scots.
context_section_description: Historically, the Falls Road district has had a strong Roman Catholic tradition. This is reflected in the number of Catholic churches in the area. These include St Peter's Cathedral in the Lower Falls area just off Albert Street. This was originally a parish church built for the expanding Catholic population in the area in the 1860s. It was designed by Fr Jeremiah Ryan McAulay, who had trained as an architect before he became a priest, and built on a site donated by a local baker, Bernard Hughes. It became the cathedral church for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Down and Connor and the episcopal seat of the Bishop of Down and Connor in 1986. It is home to St Peter's Schola Cantorum (Choir).
  Clonard monastery, the home of the Redemptorist religious order, is located nearby. Father Alec Reid who played an important role in the Northern Ireland peace process was based here.
  There were also several Protestant churches in the area. These have either been demolished or converted into other uses as their congregations dwindled with the building of the peace lines.  These churches included the Methodist church in Divis Street (1850-1966) which was designed by Charles Lanyon and was the original home of the Falls Road Orange Lodge.  Nearby was the Hungarian Flour Mill owned by Bernard Hughes. It burned down in a fire in 1966.  There was also a Presbyterian church in Albert Street (1852-1972) where one of the ministers was the Rev. Henry Montgomery who helped establish the Shankill Road Mission in 1896. St. Luke’s Church (1863-2006) on Northumberland Street, was the Church of Ireland church for the Lower Falls. It amalgamated with St. Stephen’s Church on Millfield. St Philip's Church of Ireland Church (Drew Memorial) (1870-1994) on the Grosvenor Road merged with St. Simon's Church on the Donegall Road.
caption: St Peter's Cathedral
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