I have 5 generations of my family buried in Milltown, ranging from babies to adults.
I first found the issues with Milltown in last year, when I went to find out the location of my relatives.
There was an infant, Margaret, whom I found buried in the poor ground of Milltown Cemetery, along with 5 adults and 9 other children in what is supposed to have been a 9ft by 4.5 plot.
When I got to that plot, I found that section had been reclaimed, with bought plots where all those souls buried there should’ve been. When I questioned the office, I was told no remains were removed and that they are all still there.
For starters, there is no chance of 5 adults and 10 babies all fitting into one 9x4.5, so how many plots did they combine under one grave number? And how off does this make their maps?
I have given up on trying to find out what happened to Margaret’s remains, I know she has likely been thrown away like she meant nothing to anyone, but I can’t help but imagine her parents, who entrusted her in the care of the Diocese of Down and Connor back in 1917, only for them to dig her up 40-50 years later.
My bought family plots are still intact, as are my family’s other burials in the poor ground sections of Milltown, but for how long will I be able to say that?
They also originally told me that a list of my relatives weren’t buried within the cemetery, but imagine my surprise when I went looking through the records myself and found them all in less than an hour.
I truly doubt they tried, I went into the office with a registration number for one relative as their plot number was illegible and imagine my surprise when they were able to tell me where he was, despite saying he wasn’t there before.
All over the cemetery, bought graves have been marked with spray paint, ready to be disturbed by gravediggers who have little to no respect for those beneath the surface.
I have watched them destroy two plots, and it took two months for those plots to have new burials. In the time between, the plot wasn’t fully filled in at all, with a large gap between the soil in the plot and the path around it.
They dug at those plots and the poor souls within, and simply went off to lunch after a brief moment of deciding whether or not they should continue with another two plots, no cares in the world.
I would personally love to know how everyone involved with Milltown sleeps at night, because I know if I were in their shoes, it would haunt me.
The assumption that nobody is going to go looking for those within the poor ground is wrong, people are coming forward as there is no longer so much shame associated with the poor ground, nor so many barriers in finding the location of the thousands of infants, children and adults buried there.
It may be too late for my family’s Margaret, but it is not too late for those belonging to other families.