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.

History

Milltown Cemetery opened in 1869 as part of the broader provision of services for the city of Belfast's expanding Catholic population. The cemetery was an important development in the episcopal reign of Bishop Patrick Dorrian of the Diocese of Down and Connor. Although the cemetery's history and story is often presented as a nationalist and Irish Republican site, in fact the overwhelming majority of the approximately 200,000 of Belfast dead who are buried there were ordinary Catholics, many in unmarked graves. Within the cemetery there are three large sections of open space, each about the size of a football pitch, 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 acre cemetery has undergone extensive work, reversing years of neglect.

Republicanism

The cemetery has, for some, become synonymous with Irish republicanism. Irish Republican Army prisoner 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 of a heart attack in 1996) 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, IPLO and Workers' Party are also buried there. The cemetery was the scene of the Milltown Cemetery attack on 16 March 1988, when loyalist Michael Stone attacked a funeral, killing three mourners as IRA volunteers Dan McCann, Seán Savage and Mairéad Farrell, were being buried. All three had been killed by members of the SAS at Gibraltar during Operation Flavius.

Graves

Winifred Carney, a lifelong socialist (died 21 November 1943) was a member of the Irish Citizen Army and Cumann na mBan. In 1916 during the Easter Rising she was secretary to Commadante James Connolly and the last woman to leave the G.P.O.

Priest's Row

Another significant section of the cemetery, facing onto the Andersonstown Road is the plot where many senior Catholic clerics, important educational, social and cultural figures in post-Partition Northern Ireland, are buried. Many of the graves are adorned with high Celtic crosses. There are over two dozen priests of the Diocese of Down and Connor buried here almost all of them with strong pastoral and familial links to West Belfast. Among the most prominent are:

War Graves

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains and registers the graves within the cemetery of British Commonwealth service personnel, covering years 1914–21 and 1939–47. There are 102 World War I and 52 World War II graves, besides 10 foreign national servicemen. The focal point is a Cross of Sacrifice erected by the commission after World War I, near which stands a Screen Wall memorial listing those of that war whose graves could not be individually marked.

Belfast Blitz Memorial

The Belfast Blitz occurred in the April and May 1941 when approximately 1,000 citizens of the city, known and unknown, perished. After the burials of those who could be identified the city authorities were left with human remains where positive identification was not possible. It was decided to have two large 'en masse' burials, one at the City Cemetery and one at Milltown where 30 unknown people, who bore effects identifying them as Catholics, are buried. In 2012 the memorial was restored.

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