Milltown Cemetery
Encyclopedia
Milltown Cemetery is a large cemetery
in west Belfast
, Northern Ireland
.
It lies within the townland
of Ballymurphy, between Falls Road and the M1 motorway
. Milltown Cemetery opened in 1869 and there are now approximately 200,000 of Belfast's citizens buried there. Most of those buried there are Irish Catholic
. Within the cemetery there are three large sections of open space, each about the size of a football field, designated as "poor ground". Over 80,000 people are buried in the cemetery's poor grounds, many of whom died in the flu pandemic of 1919. Since 2007, the 55 acres (222,577.3 m²) cemetery has undergone extensive work, reversing years of neglect.
. Irish Republican Army
volunteer Bobby Sands
, who died on hunger strike on 5 May 1981, is buried in the cemetery. Fellow hunger-strikers, Kieran Doherty
, Joe McDonnell and Pat McGeown
(who died a number of years later from ill-health brought about by the hunger strike) are also buried there. In total, 77 IRA volunteers are buried in what is known as the 'New Republican Plot', a further 34 volunteers are buried in what is known as the County Antrim Memorial Plot and which was used between 1969 and 1972. Throughout the cemetery, many more IRA volunteers are buried in family graves. These include Tom Williams
, who was executed in Crumlin Road Prison on 2 September 1942. Williams' body lay in a prison grave until January 2000, when a campaign, by the National Graves Association, Belfast
, to have his remains re-interred in Milltown was successful. Members of the INLA and Workers' Party
are also buried there.
Milltown was the scene of the Milltown Cemetery attack
on 16 March 1988, when loyalist paramilitary
Michael Stone
attacked a funeral, killing three mourners as IRA volunteers Dan McCann, Seán Savage
and Mairéad Farrell
, were being buried. All three were killed by members of the SAS
at Gibraltar
during Operation Flavius
.
1. Harbinson Plot
William Harbinson died while interned in Belfast Prison and was buried at Portmore, Ballinderry. A Celtic cross
was erected to his memory, and that of other republicans who where imprisoned in County Antrim
jails, in Milltown cemetery in 1912. This plot contains the remains of 5 IRA volunteers:
2. County Antrim Memorial Plot Unveiled on the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising
, the plot honours the county’s republican dead. 34 IRA volunteers who died while involved in paramilitary activity during the late 1960s and early 1970s are buried there.
3. New Republican Plot
In 1972, the National Graves Association purchased the ground which would become the New Republican Plot, the first burials here took place in July of that year. This Plot contains the remains of 77 IRA Volunteers who have died on Active Service or as a result of imprisonment or assassination, not only in Belfast but those killed as far away as Gibraltar. Here are buried those volunteers who died as a result of hunger striking.
4. Winifred Carney
Grave
Winifred Carney, a lifelong socialist died on the 21st November 1943, was a member of the Irish Citizen Army and Cumann na mBan. She was a comrade and secretary to Commadante James Connolly. Winifred was a combatant during the 1916 Easter Rising and was the last woman to leave the G.P.O.
5. Sean McCaughey
Grave
6. INLA Plot
The INLA Plot contains the remains of ten members of the Irish National Liberation Army
7. Giuseppe Conlon Grave
8. Gerard Dillon Grave
9 Cathal O'Byrne
Cemetery
A cemetery is a place in which dead bodies and cremated remains are buried. The term "cemetery" implies that the land is specifically designated as a burying ground. Cemeteries in the Western world are where the final ceremonies of death are observed...
in west Belfast
Belfast
Belfast is the capital of and largest city in Northern Ireland. By population, it is the 14th biggest city in the United Kingdom and second biggest on the island of Ireland . It is the seat of the devolved government and legislative Northern Ireland Assembly...
, Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
.
It lies within the townland
Townland
A townland or bally is a small geographical division of land used in Ireland. The townland system is of Gaelic origin—most townlands are believed to pre-date the Norman invasion and most have names derived from the Irish language...
of Ballymurphy, between Falls Road and the M1 motorway
M1 motorway
The M1 is a north–south motorway in England primarily connecting London to Leeds, where it joins the A1 near Aberford. While the M1 is considered to be the first inter-urban motorway to be completed in the United Kingdom, the first road to be built to motorway standard in the country was the...
. Milltown Cemetery opened in 1869 and there are now approximately 200,000 of Belfast's citizens buried there. Most of those buried there are Irish Catholic
Irish Catholic
Irish Catholic is a term used to describe people who are both Roman Catholic and Irish .Note: the term is not used to describe a variant of Catholicism. More particularly, it is not a separate creed or sect in the sense that "Anglo-Catholic", "Old Catholic", "Eastern Orthodox Catholic" might be...
. Within the cemetery there are three large sections of open space, each about the size of a football field, designated as "poor ground". Over 80,000 people are buried in the cemetery's poor grounds, many of whom died in the flu pandemic of 1919. Since 2007, the 55 acres (222,577.3 m²) cemetery has undergone extensive work, reversing years of neglect.
Republicanism
The cemetery, located in the heart of West Belfast has become synonymous with Irish republicanismIrish Republicanism
Irish republicanism is an ideology based on the belief that all of Ireland should be an independent republic.In 1801, under the Act of Union, the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland merged to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland...
. Irish Republican Army
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army was an Irish republican revolutionary military organisation. It was descended from the Irish Volunteers, an organisation established on 25 November 1913 that staged the Easter Rising in April 1916...
volunteer Bobby Sands
Bobby Sands
Robert Gerard "Bobby" Sands was an Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army and member of the United Kingdom Parliament who died on hunger strike while imprisoned in HM Prison Maze....
, who died on hunger strike on 5 May 1981, is buried in the cemetery. Fellow hunger-strikers, Kieran Doherty
Kieran Doherty
Kieran Doherty TD was an Irish republican hunger striker, Teachta Dála and a volunteer in the Belfast Brigade of the Provisional Irish Republican Army ....
, Joe McDonnell and Pat McGeown
Pat McGeown
Pat "Beag" McGeown was a volunteer in the Provisional Irish Republican Army who took part in the 1981 Irish hunger strike.-Background and IRA activity:...
(who died a number of years later from ill-health brought about by the hunger strike) are also buried there. In total, 77 IRA volunteers are buried in what is known as the 'New Republican Plot', a further 34 volunteers are buried in what is known as the County Antrim Memorial Plot and which was used between 1969 and 1972. Throughout the cemetery, many more IRA volunteers are buried in family graves. These include Tom Williams
Tom Williams
Tom Williams may refer to:*Tom Williams , head football coach at Yale University*Tom Williams *Tom Williams , English-Cypriot football player...
, who was executed in Crumlin Road Prison on 2 September 1942. Williams' body lay in a prison grave until January 2000, when a campaign, by the National Graves Association, Belfast
National Graves Association, Belfast
The National Graves Association, Belfast is a private Irish republican organisation which undertakes to care for and maintain the graves of some Irish Republican Army volunteers who are buried in Belfast cemeteries...
, to have his remains re-interred in Milltown was successful. Members of the INLA and Workers' Party
Workers' Party of Ireland
The Workers' Party is a left-wing republican political party in Ireland. Originating in the Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, it took its current form in 1970 after a split within the party, adopting its current name in 1982....
are also buried there.
Milltown was the scene of the Milltown Cemetery attack
Milltown Cemetery attack
The Milltown Cemetery attack The Milltown Cemetery attack The Milltown Cemetery attack (also known as the Milltown Cemetery killings or Milltown Massacre took place on 16 March 1988 in Belfast's Milltown Cemetery...
on 16 March 1988, when loyalist paramilitary
Paramilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
Michael Stone
Michael Stone (loyalist paramilitary)
Michael Stone is a Northern Irish loyalist who was a volunteer in the Ulster Defence Association . Stone was born in England but raised in the Braniel estate in East Belfast, Northern Ireland. Convicted of killing three people and injuring more than sixty in an attack on mourners at Milltown...
attacked a funeral, killing three mourners as IRA volunteers Dan McCann, Seán Savage
Seán Savage
Seán Savage was a volunteer of the Provisional IRA who was shot and killed by British Army Special Air Service soldiers in Operation Flavius.-Early life:...
and Mairéad Farrell
Mairéad Farrell
Mairéad Farrell was an Irish volunteer of the Provisional Irish Republican Army . She was killed by SAS soldiers during Operation Flavius, a British Army operation to prevent a bombing in Gibraltar.-Early life:...
, were being buried. All three were killed by members of the SAS
Special Air Service
Special Air Service or SAS is a corps of the British Army constituted on 31 May 1950. They are part of the United Kingdom Special Forces and have served as a model for the special forces of many other countries all over the world...
at Gibraltar
Gibraltar
Gibraltar is a British overseas territory located on the southern end of the Iberian Peninsula at the entrance of the Mediterranean. A peninsula with an area of , it has a northern border with Andalusia, Spain. The Rock of Gibraltar is the major landmark of the region...
during Operation Flavius
Operation Flavius
Operation Flavius was the name given to an operation by a Special Air Service team in Gibraltar on 6 March 1988 tasked to prevent a Provisional Irish Republican Army bomb attack...
.
Notable Graves
Milltown Cemetery has approximately 50,000 graves within its 55 acres (222,577.3 m²) site. Listed below a number of graves which are of significant interest to tourists coming to the cemetery. Although the cemetery itself does not conduct its own official tours there are a number of tour companies which focus their tours on around the following monuments and persons.1. Harbinson Plot
William Harbinson died while interned in Belfast Prison and was buried at Portmore, Ballinderry. A Celtic cross
Celtic cross
A Celtic cross is a symbol that combines a cross with a ring surrounding the intersection. In the Celtic Christian world it was combined with the Christian cross and this design was often used for high crosses – a free-standing cross made of stone and often richly decorated...
was erected to his memory, and that of other republicans who where imprisoned in County Antrim
County Antrim
County Antrim is one of six counties that form Northern Ireland, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of 2,844 km², with a population of approximately 616,000...
jails, in Milltown cemetery in 1912. This plot contains the remains of 5 IRA volunteers:
- Joe McKelvey, Liam Mellows, Dick Barrett and Rory O’Connor were captured when Free State forces attacked the Four Courts in Dublin. Without charge or trial, on 8 December 1922, they were executed by firing squad. In 1924 McKelvey was re-interred in Milltown.
- Sean McCartney was shot dead by British Forces while on active service on 8 May 1921 in the Lappinduff Mountains, County Cavan. He was a member of a Belfast Flying ColumnFlying ColumnFlying Column was the name adopted by a group of Irish traditional musicians and singers who formed a folk band in Belfast around 1967/68. They took their name from the small tight cells that comprised the IRA active service units during the Anglo-Irish war of 1916-1921.-Name:Sammy Largey, the...
which operated there. - Terence Perry, in 1939, as part of the IRA’s Expeditionary Force, volunteered for active service in England. Captured, he was imprisoned in Parkhurst Prison, where he died on 7 July 1942.
- Sean Gaffney, an IRA volunteer was imprisoned on the prison ship Al Rawdah, moored at Strangford Lough. On the 18 November 1940 he died while still in prison.
- Seamus ‘Rocky’ Burns, while interned, escaped from Derry jail. He was in Belfast when he was shot by RUC personnel in Castle Street. He died on 12 February 1944.
2. County Antrim Memorial Plot Unveiled on the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising
Easter Rising
The Easter Rising was an insurrection staged in Ireland during Easter Week, 1916. The Rising was mounted by Irish republicans with the aims of ending British rule in Ireland and establishing the Irish Republic at a time when the British Empire was heavily engaged in the First World War...
, the plot honours the county’s republican dead. 34 IRA volunteers who died while involved in paramilitary activity during the late 1960s and early 1970s are buried there.
3. New Republican Plot
In 1972, the National Graves Association purchased the ground which would become the New Republican Plot, the first burials here took place in July of that year. This Plot contains the remains of 77 IRA Volunteers who have died on Active Service or as a result of imprisonment or assassination, not only in Belfast but those killed as far away as Gibraltar. Here are buried those volunteers who died as a result of hunger striking.
4. Winifred Carney
Winifred Carney
Maria Winifred Carney, known as Winnie Carney, was a suffragist, trade unionist and Irish independence activist. Born in Bangor, County Down, her family moved to the Falls Road in Belfast when she was a child...
Grave
Winifred Carney, a lifelong socialist died on the 21st November 1943, was a member of the Irish Citizen Army and Cumann na mBan. She was a comrade and secretary to Commadante James Connolly. Winifred was a combatant during the 1916 Easter Rising and was the last woman to leave the G.P.O.
5. Sean McCaughey
Seán McCaughey
Seán McCaughey was an Irish Republican Army leader in the 1930s and 1940s, and hunger striker....
Grave
6. INLA Plot
The INLA Plot contains the remains of ten members of the Irish National Liberation Army
Irish National Liberation Army
The Irish National Liberation Army or INLA is an Irish republican socialist paramilitary group that was formed on 8 December 1974. Its goal is to remove Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom and create a socialist united Ireland....
7. Giuseppe Conlon Grave
8. Gerard Dillon Grave
9 Cathal O'Byrne
Cathal O'Byrne
Cathal O'Byrne was an Irish singer, poet and writer.-Early life:O'Byrne was born and raised at Balmoral County Down, the son of parents from County Wicklow. He was employed at a grocery on Beersbridge Rd. in Ballymacarret where he would befriend Joseph Devlin.-Career:He joined the Gaelic League in...