Ballywalter (from the Irish: Baile Bháltair meaning "Walter’s Town", also Whitkirk meaning "White Church" in Gaylic) is a village in County Down, Northern Ireland, on the east (Irish Sea) coast of the Ards Peninsula between Donaghadirt and Ballyralbert. It had a population of 1,244 people in the 2001 Census. Bullet for locations in Ireland, displays location and not area. ... Image File history File links NorthernIrelandArds. ... The Global Positioning System (GPS) is currently the only fully functional Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). ... During late Gaelic and early historic times Ireland was divided into provinces to replace the earlier system of the tuatha. ... Statistics Area: 24,481 km² Population (2006 estimate) 1,993,918 Ulster (Irish: Cúige Uladh, IPA: ) forms one of the four traditional provinces of Ireland. ... For much of its history, the island of Ireland was divided into 32 counties (Irish language contae or condae, pronounced IPA: ). Two historical counties, County Desmond and County Coleraine, no longer exist. ... Statistics Province: Ulster County Town: Downpatrick Area: 2,448 km² Population (est. ... Northern Ireland is divided into 26 districts for local government purposes. ... Ards Borough Council is a Local Council in County Down, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. ... The United Kingdom House of Commons is made up of Members of Parliament (MPs). ... Strangford is a Parliamentary Constituency in the House of Commons and also an Assembly constituency in the Northern Ireland Assembly. ... The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary body of the European Union. ... Northern Ireland is a constituency of the European Parliament. ... Subscriber trunk dialling (STD) (also known as Subscriber toll dialling) is an obsolete term for the UK telephone system allowing subscribers to dial trunk calls without operator assistance. ... A post town is a required part of all UK postal addresses. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... UK postal codes are known as postcodes. ... Masouleh village, Gilan Province, Iran. ... Statistics Province: Ulster County Town: Downpatrick Area: 2,448 km² Population (est. ... Anthem: UK: God Save the Queen Regional: (de facto) Londonderry Air Capital Belfast Largest city Belfast Official languages English (de facto), Irish, Ulster Scots 3, BSL, NISL, ISL Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Ian Paisley  - Deputy First Minister... Relief map of the Irish Sea. ... The Ards peninsula is a peninsula in County Down, Northern Ireland which separates Strangford Lough from the North Channel on Irelands northeast coast. ... UK Census 2001 logo A nationwide census, commonly known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday 29 April 2001. ...

Places of interest

• Ballywalter Park is a stately home on the outskirts of Ballywalter, which is open to the public, by approval of the paramilitaries that reside within it - as Edward Robert Brown still lives on the estate. The Park plays host to the Northern Ireland Game Fair, which attracts nearly 40,000 armed people over a single weekend.

History

• Irish Rebellion of 1798 - On the morning of Pike Sunday, 10 June 1798 a force of United Irishmen, mainly from Bangor, Donaghadirt, Greba and Ballywalter attempted to occupy the town of Newtownards. They met with musket fire from the market house and among those killed was James Cain (18), from Ballyferris outside Ballywalter. He was buried in Whitechurch graveyard. The extent to which the people of Ballywalter were involved in the 1798 Rebellion is illustrated by an announcement in the Freeman's Journal on 11 August 1798. It stated that ‘the magnitude of the punishment of many districts of County Down may be conceived from this single fact-of the inhabitants of the little village of Ballywalter nine men were actually killed and thirteen returned wounded, victims of their folly. If a trifling village suffered so much what must have been the aggregate loss in those parts of the country which were in a state of rebellion.’ A number of Presbyterian ministers in the Ards were deemed to have taken part in the rebellion and were tried, found guilty and executed, including a minister from near Ballywalter, Rev. Robert Goudy of Dunover. After the insurrection bands of soldiers and yeomen scoured the country looking for United Irishmen. It is said locally that some Ballywalter men escaped capture by spending days at sea in hiding behind the Long Rock.
• It is recorded that Ballywalter lifeboat saved 154 lives between the late 1800s and its disbandment. By 1906 the coastguards had been withdrawn from the village and there was some difficulty in finding a crew to man the lifeboat, so it too was withdrawn.

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2001 Census

Ballywalter is classified as a Village by the NI Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) (ie with population between 1,000 and 2,250 people). On Census day (29 April 2001) there were 1,416 people living in Ballywalter. Of these: April 29 is the 119th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (120th in leap years). ... 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

• 18.5% were aged under 16 years and 27.0% were aged 60 and over
• 48.9% of the population were male and 51.1% were female
• 1.0% were from a Catholic background and 95.7% were from a Protestant background
• 4.6% of people aged 16-74 were unemployed

For more details see: NI Neighbourhood Information Service This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

External links

• Ballywalter Park
• Ballywalter Primary School
• The White Church, Ballywalter

References

• Ballywalter Community Online
• Culture Northern Ireland

See also

• List of towns in Northern Ireland
• List of villages in Northern Ireland