Milltown Cemetery

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This is a large Catholic cemetery in West Belfast located towards the western end of Falls Road. It is of dark interest primarily for its “Republican Plots”, where there are memorials and the graves of Bobby Sands and other prominent figures from the Republican/Nationalist side of the “Troubles”.

>More background info

>What there is to see

>Location

>Access and costs

>Time required

>Combinations with other dark destinations

>Combinations with non-dark destinations

>Photos

More background info: Milltown Cemetery was founded in the second half of the 19th century, specifically to serve the growing Catholic community of Belfast.

In 1919 its “poor grounds” became the final resting place for thousands of victims of the Spanish flu. There are also plots of war graves from both WW1 and WWII.

During the “Troubles” (see under Northern Ireland, Belfast and West Belfast) Milltown Cemetery became associated with the Republican side, and well over a hundred IRA fighters are interred here. Most prominently amongst these are the hunger strikers of 1981, in particular the legendary Bobby Sands. The Republican Plot has hence become a pilgrimage site for Republicans (and curious dark tourists).

In 1988 the cemetery became the site of a sectarian atrocity itself, when UDA paramilitary fighter Michael Stone shot at an IRA funeral, killing three and injuring six more. The funeral was of three IRA members who had been killed by British SAS soldiers in Gibraltar about a fortnight earlier.

Stone received a life sentence for the funeral murder but was released in 2000 under the Good Friday Agreement, only to be imprisoned again in 2006 after he had attempted to infiltrate the Stormont parliament building (see Belfast), heavily armed and apparently with the intent of killing Republican politicians Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness.

For some time the cemetery had become neglected and partially overgrown, but now looks pretty pristine again after refurbishments.

The older Country Antrim Memorial from 1966, the first of the two Republican plots, as well as the New Republican Plot used from 1972, are under the care of the National Graves Association. Yet more Republicans are, however, buried in family graves and as such not under the care of the NGA.

What there is to see: The cemetery covers a large sloping field with only few trees. Mostly it’s open, and graves are placed quite densely together for the most part, except for the two large grassy fields that are the “poor grounds” roughly in the centre of the cemetery.

There are some well-crafted Gothic monuments and Celtic crosses, some atmospherically overgrown, but the main reason for coming here as a dark tourist is not so much to admire sepulchral art but to visit the sites associated with the “Troubles”.

The first of these is the so-called County Antrim Memorial/plot, where 34 IRA members who died in active “service” in the late 1960s and early 70s are buried. Also listed on the main monument are names of Republicans who died in earlier campaigns from the late 18th century onwards. The monument was originally created in 1966 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising in 1916 (see under Ireland).

The main point of dark-tourism interest, however, is the New Republican Plot close to the cemetery’s southern wall. This plot was inaugurated in 1972 and contains the graves of 77 IRA members killed either “in action” or as a result of imprisonment or through assassination. This includes the hunger strikers of 1981 (see Northern Ireland). The main name to look out for here is of course that of Bobby Sands, and he has indeed a separate plaque including an image of his smiley face that has become so iconic (see also under Falls Road) as well as a quote from the diary he kept in prison during the hunger strike.

There are also the graves of the three IRA members who were shot dead in Gibraltar by SAS soldiers during a failed IRA car bomb attack in March 1988. During their funeral at Milltown Cemetery a UDA assassin killed three Republican mourners and, fittingly, these lie buried next to those three transferred here from Gibraltar.

At the head of the Republican Plot stands a monument with a “Proclamation” of a “Provisional Government of Ireland to the People of Ireland”. Nearby stands another monument, this time dedicated to workers party members who lost their lives in the struggle for a socialist Ireland. It’s all quite politically charged here.

The rest of the cemetery would perhaps also be worth closer looks, e.g. for the war graves from WW1 and WWII or the Blitz Memorial (for those who died in Nazi German air raids on the city in 1941). But as the weather was so atrocious when I visited Milltown Cemetery I left it at the pilgrimage to the Republican plots and then fled into the dry warmth of a bus to take me back to the city centre.

On balance, this is probably the part of “Troubles” tourism that sees the fewest visitors, given how far away from the inner city parts it is. But as a kind of pilgrimage it complements visits to the more popular sites seen especially on Falls Road and its surroundings. But it is clearly not for everybody, really only for the quite dedicated.

Location: towards the western end of Falls Road on the edge of southern West Belfast, ca. two and a half miles (4 km) from the city centre of Belfast.

Google Maps locators:

Cemetery entrance: [54.5842, -5.9781]

County Antrim Monument: [54.58206 -5.97407]

New Republican Plot: [54.58141, -5.97496]

Access and costs: quite a long way from the centre of Belfast, but not hard to find; free

Details: To get to the cemetery you can either walk it all along Falls Road, though it is quite a distance from the Lower Falls area, let alone the city centre of Belfast. You can speed things up by getting a bus, e.g. line G1 or one of the 10s. Get out at Falls Park.

To get to the Republican plots you can first head straight east from the entrance and then turn right between the two “poor grounds” and onwards you come to the County Antrim Memorial. Carry on south and slightly right and you come to the New Republican Plot.

Admission is (naturally) free.

Opening times vary with the season, with winter being most restricted: 9 a.m. to only 3:30 p.m.; at other times of the year the gate stays open longer.

Time required: to just briefly see the Republican plots half an hour is well sufficient, but if you want to explore the rest of the cemetery as well you’ll obviously need significantly longer.

Combinations with other dark destinations: Ardent cemetery fans could also take in the even larger Belfast City Cemetery to the north of Milltown Cemetery and Falls Road, though that other cemetery lacks the political connections. But other than that there’s nothing of interest in the vicinity, only much further down the street on Lower Falls Road there are many more Republican Troubles-related spots, including the Irish Republican History Museum. And to the north of Lower Falls Road is the Unionist Shankill area.