Belfast move help

[Ais1]

Hi,
Apologies for a long post, a bit to cover!

I've seen a few different threads about Belfast moves but looking for some specific answers and ideas that I havent managed to find.

We are irish (ROI), mid 30s/ early 40s, live outside London and want to move home and northern Ireland allows us to keep our jobs and be driveable to family and have a bit more on our doorstep.

Belfast seems like a good option but we really don't know where to start. I've seen South Belfast recommended and east but also not sure if there are commuter towns i should look at and the houses in South Belfast already seem very expensive.

I also would love to understand about the schools. We have a toddler. Grew up Catholic but not religious and really don't like religion In schools. But it sounds like there's no such thing as a non-religious school in NI, only 'integrated. Is this correct? How do I find a school where a child won't feel ostracised for opting out of religion? Are there schools with higher diversity levels where a large portion don't do RE but have other activities instead?

We have a dog and love being near Green areas and want easy access to the city but more leafy areas.

We are hoping to lower our cost of living substantially so hoping to find a 4 bed house (detached or semi) for around the 350k, with a garden. Walking distance to green spaces, pub and shops etc and ideally a nice brunch place that allows dogs! We are 'foodies'. Good nursery nearby. Key is primary school where it won't feel religious throughout, and same for general area - somewhere that religion / divide isn't strong!

Thanks for anyone who has read this far and is willing to help us out!!

Re green areas for the dog, Belfast has an abundance of them. There’ll almost always be somewhere green within walking distance. There’s the river with loads of walks, and various parks. Lady Dixons is massive. It’s what I miss most having moved to England ten years ago. Well the parks/green spaces and the fact you can be at the beach in half an hour.

I can’t speak for other parts of Belfast but There are cheaper areas in south Belfast, malone road is the most expensive and where all the rich live. Finaghy, has both catholic and Protestant estates. As well as mixed streets. Look off the Lisburn road area for mixed streets. Apart from the 12th July religion doesn’t really feature on streets, we lived in a mainly Protestant estate for a number of years with no trouble. Even when we moved to a mixed street the 12th July was scary and we left town if possible.

Lisburn is only half an hour from Belfast, could be worth looking there. Dunmurray is between the two. Not sure if it classes as a suburb or a small town. Hollywood may also be worth a look but it’s another expensive area i think, we used to drive out for the day.

Schools no you won’t likely find any non religious schools. There are a few integrated schools now where both religions can go and may be less religious or avoid it. Otherwise You go to a catholic one or a Protestant one. Catholic will include mass and first communion and all those things. Non Christian’s tend to go to the Protestant schools. I’m catholic so I don’t know how much religion is in the Protestant schools but I believe it’s a lot less though I think religion gcse was still required (national curriculum, NI has its own exam board and requirements unless that’s changed recently) of my Protestant friends. I could be remembering wrong. However I decided that for my kids the catholic education could be countered by constantly telling them when they’re older they can choose for themselves. Where I live in England the catholic school is the best and focuses on kindness and morals more so than religion and I like that ethos. Yes they’re made to do the catholic rites and mass etc but I can’t see that it’ll harm them if they know other religions exist and they will have choice after schooling ends. I know non catholics who have fought to get their kids into the catholic schools here too. If you chose to opt then out of the first communion etc they’ll stand out as different. Even if they’re not ostracised they’ll be questioned by the rest of the kids.

children still do the 11 plus and go to grammar or secondary schools in NI. It’s called the transfer test now. They’re also catholic or Protestant. Grammar schools have better educational outcomes as kids are expected to mostly do well at gcse, do a levels and go to uni. Secondary school kids who managed to do well at gcse had to join a grammar school for a level years. The college was for resits if you failed exams or for adult education if you tried again after school age , not a sixth form college like here. I’d have left secondary school with no qualifications as the kids there were not pushed and kids who did study often got picked on. My taking a year out to work prior to getting into a uni I wanted to attend versus the only one I had an offer from was seen as a failure by my grammar school in terms of their result stats. I was very upset when I thought I’d not got into the grammar, luckily I was reading those results wrong. I’ve been grateful through my adult years i did go to a school where I was pushed to study and try for good grades. Things may have changed in the intervening years. Just sharing my experiences.

Hopefully someone who still lives there will be along with more up to date info.

Hi there, we are also moving to the area from ROI - really looking forward to it!

South Belfast is lovely and handy if you are heading elsewhere to family in the south. As previous poster said, Finaghy is a good option, if you look in Newtownbreda or Saintfield Road you are not too far away from the Lisburn Road area which is where the nice restaurants/bars are mostly.
Ballyhackamore is also v nice but East Belfast and not as handy for travel out of town.
Hillsborough is a lovely little town with some v nice restaurants and so close to Belfast. On the main road to Dublin too. Lisburn is another great option.

Can't say about schools, I haven't had to deal with that yet but I wouldn't worry too much about religion being a huge issue nowadays.

Hello! I am from ROI, 42 and live in south Belfast for last 6 years. I don’t have children so won’t be much help on the schools front but my friends that have primary aged kids and don’t really want them to have a religious influenced education send their kids to integrated schools - like this one www.forgeips.co.uk.

in terms of your other requirements we live near the Lisburn Road and would meet most of them - massive park across the road, 6 minutes to city centre on train/20 mins on bus. Lisburn road has tons of restaurants and cafes and stuff as does Stranmillis and Ormeau which aren’t too far away. Near enough places like Lady Dixon park too which PP mentions. Loads of supermarkets and other shops in the retail parks.

where I live there’s no ‘division’ or flags or any of that although obviously there are areas where it is an issue. Honestly we love it here - moved from Dublin a few years ago and haven’t looked back. We live in a 4 bed semi detached with garden which cost 220k two years ago so I’d imagine £350k would get you something decent. I’ll have a look and post a couple of links.

Oh and loads of places allow dogs here 🙂🙂

This is nice and lovely area. 3 beds but has a loft that can be converted.

www.propertypal.com/20-cricklewood-park-belfast/771623

There is no such thing as a Protestant primary school here (eg equivalent to CoE schools in England). State schools here accept anyone, regardless of religion. If you live in a very 'Prod' area then the school may be mostly protestant and if there is a Catholic primary nearby then any 'other' school will default to perhaps being mainly protestant due to the way applications go. My local primary is fairly mixed (and I hate that I know this because when I lived in England I wouldn't have had a clue about anyone's religion!). My kids do a bit of religious stuff but there seems to be very little focus on it. Assemblies are broadly Christian but not especially so. If you want to do prep for eg first communions via school then some non-catholic primaries facilitate this by bussing kids from a few schools to another school/chapel in the run-up. It's more built-in in the Catholic primaries schools though! Integrated schools seem to take quite a light touch when it comes to religion, they are getting better at offering a range of sports etc too.

I found phoning or visiting schools was the best way to get a feel for them. Visiting the areas will give you an idea too - eg Finaghy has been mentioned above but there are some pockets of it which are quite segregated. The flags being flown will give you an idea!

I wouldn't rule out North Belfast if I were you. Area around Belfast Castle has a lot going for it.

www.propertypal.com/25-lansdowne-road-belfast/771943

You have a pretty healthy budget and could get a lovely place for that near belfast. South Belfast is best for mixed areas and some parts of East.
I would look upper Lisburn road/ Finaghy/ upper malone or go over to Crawfordsburn area although more expensive. Youve also Bangor (some areas) and holywood. It depends how close you want to be to the city unless any small town is acceptable then you can look around the outskirts and get a bit more land/ house etc.

When we were house hunting we looked around the 12th July and anywhere where there were flags where struck off the list!
There will be some schools you will want to avoid so do some good research!

Also just to add my partner is a teacher in secondary. Unless a Catholic school on the whole there is no religion at schools. The issue will be the area, for example my partner and I live in newtownabbey and is a primarily protestant area. The school he is in would have a lot of protestants and 'involved' families from the estates and I personally won't be sending my child to any of the secondaries near us for that reason as like you do not want my child in a one or the other type of environment.

Hi, I live in Belfast and recently moved from south (Stranmillis) to east (Ballyhackamore). I would say Stranmillis, Ormeau, Lisburn Road, Four Winds/Castlereagh [bit cheaper] (all in the south) or Ballyhackamore (east) are your best bets for diversity, social life, good green space, and access to city centre. You have a healthy budget and should be able to find a nice 3/4 bed semi detached for that price. I would say Ormeau road area would suit you well, and you'd be in walking distance of at least two integrated primary and nearby an integrated secondary school. Others in the thread have mentioned this but integrated education activity teaches all religions, whereas the other schools are generally focused on Catholic or Protestant. Nearly all schools have a Christian focus, even integrated.

We loved south and had a great daycare and nursery in our area, but moved to Ballyhackamore to get a better house for our budget. We love our area and there are loads of cafes and restaurants at our doorstep. There's also a greenway which brings us straight into the city centre which is great for kids to scoot and bike. Belfast really is a wonderful place to live despite the bad press we get sometimes! Good luck in the house hunt 😊

Totally agree with all of this, all good mixed areas, I'm the same as OP, from a catholic background but not religious. I love where we live, close to bars, cafes, restaurants and parks in south Belfast

So much positivity about lovely Belfast 😍. Agree with Hopeless was looking at some lovely houses in Rosetta area which would fit your requirements OP. Where I live off lisburn road is lovely but most houses are terraced. More semi Ds in Rosetta.

I'm from NI but not Belfast. We were considering moving to Belfast recently and looking mainly at Ballyhackamore, Stranmillis, Ormeau, Lisburn Road, and Holywood (bit further out but we love being near the sea). Couldn't afford Malone! My friend is very happy living in Dundonald. She's not religious but culturally Catholic if that makes sense, and I believe her kids are in an integrated primary there.

We decided to go back to my home town in the end for various reasons but I do love Belfast.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to respond and for all your help!

I'd love to hear if anyone has any good experiences with opting-out of religion in any specific primary schools? Its really important to us and I've only really seen where when you opt out you're given other work to do in the same class, but I'd rather a much less excluding option where its normalised. I also imagine that schools which have this type of approach will be in more diverse areas which will also suit us! And that there aren't many of them, so finding them (if they exist) will really help narrow our property search area!

Thank you!