Jordanstown includes a University of Ulster campus, a bowling club, a few schools and shops. It also has a beach and seafront park area called Loughshore Park, which hosts various events throughout the year including the three-day Loughshore Festival over the last weekend in August. The park sits on the shore of Belfast Lough.
The place is named from an Anglo-Norman family called Jordan who accompanied John de Courcy to Carrickfergus in 1182. The surname Jordan is ultimately derived from the river Jordan, the name of which was used as a Christian name by returning crusaders who brought back Jordan water to baptise their children [Bally Jurdon 1604].[3]
Jordanstown was a semi-rural district until the 1950s when it expanded rapidly with the construction of new housing. Middle-class families were attracted to the area due to its location adjacent to Belfast Lough and the railway station, which provides access to Belfast City Centre.
On 4 November 1983, 28-year-olds John Martin and Stephen Fyfe, and 29-year-old William McDonald, all members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), were killed by a Provisional Irish Republican Army time bomb, hidden in the ceiling of a classroom, which exploded during a lecture to RUC members at the Ulster Polytechnic, Jordanstown, now a campus of Ulster University. Nuala O'Loan, in her capacity as a prison independent custody visitor (ICV), who was named Northern Ireland's first Police Ombudsman many years later, was injured in the attack, and, pregnant, lost the baby she was carrying at the time.[4][5][6]
On Census Day (27 March 2011) the usually resident population of Jordanstown was 6,225 accounting for 0.34% of the NI total.[2] Of these:
97.61% were from the white (including Irish Traveller) ethnic group
14.22% belong to or were brought up Catholic and 74.84% belong to or were brought up in a 'Protestant and other (non-Catholic) Christian (including Christian related)'
70.94% indicated that they had a British national identity, 11.45% had an Irish national identity and 33.80% had a Northern Irish national identity.
This section needs to be updated. The reason given is: Doesn't seem to appear as a settlement in 2011 census. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(January 2021)
Jordanstown is a small settlement within Belfast Metropolitan Urban Area (BMUA). On Census day (29 April 2001) there were 5,494 people living in Jordanstown. Of these:
16.9% were under 16 years old and 48.9% were aged 60 and above
32.6% of the population were male and 50.5% were female
