14 apartments planned forsite of McAteer family home

Clammil Housing Association has applied for permission to build 14 flats on the site of the former home of Eddie McAteer.
Eddie McAteer (left) with Mayor Albert Anderson and John Hume, following a cavalcade to Stormont in support of a University for Londonderry.Eddie McAteer (left) with Mayor Albert Anderson and John Hume, following a cavalcade to Stormont in support of a University for Londonderry.
Eddie McAteer (left) with Mayor Albert Anderson and John Hume, following a cavalcade to Stormont in support of a University for Londonderry.

The firm, which has offices at Somme Park in Altnagelvin, wants to erect fourteen apartments, landscaping, car parking and associated site works, at the former ‘Homefield’ site at the corner of Beechwood Avenue and Marlborough Street.

The site was the family home of Mr McAteer, a former leader of the Nationalist Party, who was returned to the old Stormont for many years as MP for the constituencies of Mid Londonderry and later Foyle, prior to their abolition following the imposition of direct rule in 1972. Mr McAteer’s brother Hugh, who also lived for a time nearby in the Beechwood area, was Chief of Staff of the Irish Republican Army in the early 1940s.

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According to a planning and design statement submitted with the application: “The mix of units proposed is informed by the local housing need in the area.

“The development of this land for social housing will contribute to alleviating the a shortfall in social housing provision in this part of Derry City.”

In relation to the site’s history the statement, merely, says: “Irregular in shape the land had been previously developed as a single dwelling house.”

Elsewhere, it says: “The site does not contain any buildings or monuments which are listed or scheduled. The site is not located in a conservation area and does not have any site specrfic environmental designations attached.”

The old house was razed in 2003, much to the consternation of many in the city and beyond. Visitors to the house included, Eamonn de Valera, Sir Robin Day and Ludovic Kennedy.

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