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Ormeau Park is the oldest municipal park in Belfast, Northern Ireland, having been officially opened to the public in 1871. It is owned and run by Belfast City Council and is one of the largest and busiest parks in the city and contains a variety of horticulture, woodland, wildlife and sporting facilities.
The park is open daily from dawn to dusk. It features basketball, netball, soccer and tennis facilities, bowling greens, pavilions, car parking, cycling (and BMX track), ecotrails, horticultural displays, an orienteering course, a playground, seasonal bedding, specimen trees, and multiple walks. The park opens on to the Ormeau Road, the Ormeau Embankment, Park Road, and the Ravenhill Road. Access to Belfast city centre is available on Metro bus routes 7A - 7D.
The park has been used for Orange gatherings on the Twelfth as well as other open-air events such as . It was also the scene of the first meeting of the Ulster Vanguard on 18 March 1972 when William Craig called on his followers to attend following his decision to leave the Ulster Unionist Party. Joined by 100,000 followers Craig made a controversial speech in which he stated that "we must build up a dossier of the men and women who are a menace to this country because if and when the politicians fail us, it may be our job to liquidate the enemy".P. Taylor, Loyalists, London: Bloomsbury, 2000, p. 96
In September 1973 the park was scene of a murder in which ten-year-old abductee Brian McDermott was dismembered and his body incinerated. The gruesome nature of the murder was such that local press speculated it may have been carried out as part of a Satanism ritual.Martin Dillon, The Trigger Men, Mainstream Publishing, 2003, p. 104 However, according to B police files the killing had actually been carried out by John McKeague, a noted far right Ulster loyalism paramilitary and activist who was a leading figure in the paedophile ring at Kincora Boys' Home.Martin Dillon, The Shankill Butchers, (1989), p. 23
The proposed City of Belfast Stadium would initially have accommodated a capacity of 25,000 seats with the option to extend to 35,000 seats as required. The plans said that the site would not occupy any of the park land used by the local community but that it would occupy the site currently housing the Ozone leisure facility.
In 2007 the then First Minister Ian Paisley vetoed use of the Ormeau Park for this purpose and the plan was abandoned. Paisley says no to Ormeau stadium
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