Established 1869 Size 55 acres (220,000 m) No. of interments 200,000 Phone +44 28 9061 3972 | No. of graves 50,000 Founded 1869 Province Ulster | |
Address 546 Falls Rd, Belfast BT12 6EQ, UK Similar HM Prison Maze, Clonard Monastery, HM Prison Crumlin Road, Parliament Buildings, Divis |
Milltown Cemetery (Irish: Reilig Bhaile an Mhuilinn) is a large cemetery in west Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Contents
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-acre (220,000 m2) cemetery has undergone extensive work, reversing years of neglect.
Republican plots milltown cemetery belfast
Republicanism
The cemetery, located in the heart of West Belfast has become synonymous with Irish republicanism. 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, IPLO 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.
Graves
Milltown Cemetery has approximately 50,000 graves within its 55-acre (220,000 m2) site. Listed below a number of graves which are of 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.