We have obtained this document submitted by the RC Diocese of Down and Connor, and highlight - in red - how what the Diocese has claimed is not necessarily the truth.
This makes for very interesting reading indeed, and perhaps highlights just how corrupt and dishonest the Diocese, and its agents have been.
A meeting with the PSNI is now nearing, as is a meeting with a head of Depratment in Queens University.
It seems the Diocese is planning to develop a part of the sacred burial grounds as a walk and cycle path - even in death they (the Diocese) will, and unwittingly so will others - walk (and cycle) over the dead.
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Submission by the Diocese of Down and Connor to The Committee for The Executive Office
October 2024
The Diocese of Down and Connor (“the diocese”) welcomes the opportunity to present this submission to the committee to provide factual and accurate information in relation to Milltown Cemetery and to correct misinformation which has been circulating in the media and disseminated from third parties.
The Catholic Church is very mindful of the distress to many people who have relatives buried in the cemetery, particularly babies and young children and does not wish to add to that grief but wishes to provide assurance to the whole community that:
No graves have been resold containing deceased remains
* Incorrect – We have copy leases for graves which have been resold. One family inparticular has returned to look for a family member, only to find a headstone and new occupants in the grave.
The family involved were told that their family were still in the grave. (A member of the family is willing to come forward if needed)
The grave in question (MC15) in the upper Poor Ground , it had five adults, and nine children recorded as buried in this mass grave.
In 1979 however, the grave was resold as a private grave and now has four adults interred and recorded on a headstone, there was no headstone for the previous fourteen buried in the grave.
The removal of previous occupants from reclaimed graves is something that has been testified to by past cemetery staff such as Dan Skelly and Micky Kerr.
When the family approached the cemetery office with this information, they were told that their family member was still in the grave, they had just buried the new occupants on top.
This is not true; Dan Skelly was personally involved in the removal of human remains from these reclaimed graves in the 1970’s. The staff had been told to break up any coffins and remove remains to prepare the land for resale. Remains were crushed up in the bottom of the grave or thrown into a skip, with some of the larger long bones and coffin boards disposed of in the Bog Meadows.
This is verified by the discovery of same in the Bog Meadows by the excavation in 2011 and current work of Feb 2024.
(Dan is available to confirm in person if needed – unlike current cemetery staff, Dan has not signed a ‘Non-disclosure agreement’)
The vast majority of burials are recorded and will be available when the current digitisation programme is complete.
* Questionable. - The family mentioned above have confirmed that they also inquired at the Milltown Cemetery office for the location of no less than five other family members and were informed that no record could be found for any of them - This is also untrue, as we were able to find the records in the Milltown Cemetery records currently available in PRONI.
Since the NAC survey (2023) uncovered a number of burials in land that the cemetery were ‘confident’ contained no burials, the above statement would seem not to be the case. The burials uncovered are said to have been ‘Coffined and un-coffined’ the report does not state if these individuals were adults or children. It would be helpful to know, as adults would have been buried by the cemetery staff while infants buried in isolation could possibly be Cillini burials.
Another important aspect to consider if they were adults is that, given the past information supplied through myself to the PSNI about the possible location of members of the ‘Disappeared’ within the area of the Bog Meadows.
(The legal representative for the church was informed of this during the initial research)
No land has been sold containing graves.
* Incorrect. - the sale of land to the Ulster Wildlife Trust in 2000 which contained themajority of the 10500 burials that the diocese acknowledges in this submission, would definitely constitute the sale of burial ground! It is worth remembering that all these burials were recorded in your own records, so how did you ‘Sell’ or ‘Lease’ this land?
As Catholic priests you have a duty to protect the dead placed in your care. The sale of new graves in the bottom two sections of the 500’s, where there is first- hand ethnographic evidence for burials would also seem to disprove this statement.
No graves are under any of the paths.
* Incorrect. - According to not only your own staff and the results of the report by Dr. Alastair Ruffell (2009) which found graves under the carpark and the ‘Cattle Path’ leading from the cemetery into the Bog Meadows, there are a large number of burials under paths and the carpark within the cemetery.
The row of graves in ‘KG’ do in fact start under the path in front of the Polish War Graves and have recorded burials in your records! It is this row which contained the first row of War Graves.
When these soldiers were repatriated, the graves were reused, then tarmacked over. (Photo showing this in Tom Hartley’s book)
The diocese is the owner of Milltown Cemetery. It is a private cemetery which opened in 1869 primarily for the ever-increasing Catholic population of the city of Belfast and to replace the Friars Bush Cemetery which was full. The background to the opening of Milltown is set out in Tom Hartley’s book whereby an agreement was reached between the then Bishop of Down and Connor and Belfast Corporation releasing the Corporation from its legal responsibility as a Burial Board to bury Catholics.
* Bishop Dornan had made so many demands on the then new City Cemetery on the Falls Road, that the corporation had to go back to him and inform him that they had allocated too much ground to the specific burial of Catholics. The Bishop asked for £4000, in return for this, the Corporation could then bury where they wished. Bishop Dornan then walked across the road and purchased Milltown House and fifteen acres of associated farmland for £4100. Hence Milltown Cemetery was established. (Dr.Eamon Phoenix Pers Comm 2005)
Since the cemetery opened in August 1869 there have been over 200,000 burials in approximately 40,000 plots. Every official burial has been recorded in the cemetery books and has been handwritten.
Those records are currently being digitised and will be searchable online in 2025. It is estimated that there are less than 100 records with incorrect plot references, but notwithstanding any inaccuracies, it is still possible to identify the general location where remains are located.
* Official? - Does this mean that the diocese now accepts that ‘Unofficial’ burials could have been conducted, including infant burials under cover of darkness and the possibility of more sinister burials? (Such as those reported to PSNI and Brial Gibson in 2010. - Transcripts of these meetings passed to PSNI).
Originally the cemetery (with various land purchases in the 20th century) comprised approximately 75 acres but, in 2000, 37 acres were leased to the Ulster Wildlife Trust. This land comprised of what was colloquially known as the “Bog Meadows”, most of which is unsuitable for use as burial ground. However, after receiving complaints that the leased land potentially contained human remains, the diocese bought back 6.2 acres in 2010 to determine its southern boundary and to provide additional land to secure the long-term future of the cemetery.
* Incorrect. - According to Brian Gibson (Legal representative for the diocese during the 2008 – 2012 research) the land was sold for £700 per acre. This means that if we accept all the burials (Approx 11000) are contained within the northern half of the 6.28 acres returned, approximately 3 acres, then the £700 per acre equates to 19p per body? (Sobering thought!)
None of the land purchased back from the Ulster Wildlife Trust contained any recorded graves but there was some minimal evidence of human remains.
* Once again, this is incorrect! - The majority of the burials (mentioned above) in this land are recorded in the cemetery records! 10500 to 11000 burials is not ‘Minimal’ evidence!
This was independently verified by a report to the diocese in 2009 conducted by Alastair Ruffell of Queens University Belfast on behalf of the Northern Ireland Environment Agency.
* Incorrect. – Alastair Ruffel’s report clearly states the following. Summary (Extract from 2009 Report)
1. Area A (wooded area and tarmac lane to the south) has indications of individual human burials as grave cuts or discrete burials.
2. Area C (field to northeast of graveyard) has evidence of buried human remains being present (from Victim Recovery Dog [VRD] indications) yet only minimal evidence of individual burials (as in Area A).
Human remains in this area may have been reworked, had material dumped on them, or been placed in deep (over 1m) mass graves. Square features observed on ground-penetrating radar (GPR) slices may support the latter hypothesis. One strong dog indication occurs at the eastern limit of Area C, between the wire fence and bushes.
3. In the north of Area D, adjacent to Area C (west of an established oak tree), low ground is associated with three GPR anomalies and a consistent VRD indication. (Milltown Cemetery and Bog Meadows Search Results: P1. Alastair Ruffell 2009)
* In an effort to clarify this issue further for the church and cemetery in 2009, I asked Dr. Ruffell to put in writing once again his recommendation for the Diocese, so there could be no ambiguity about the site.
Interestingly, this second document by Dr Ruffell with the recommendation for the site has been left out of the appendix list supplied by the diocese to the Minister. I have supplied a copy of this to the Minister. (Letter and recommendations from Alastair Ruffell to Brian Gibson dated 24 th March 2009)
This was a common theme throughout my research and interaction with the diocese representatives in relation to the issue of not reusing this land for burials in the future.
This is due to the nature of the burials and the associated Cillini burials, which would not be recorded anywhere, as these furtive burials were traditionally conducted between sundown on the day the baby died and sunrise on the next day. They were conducted in this way because the church did not allow unbaptised infants to be buried on consecrated ground and the occurrence and use of ‘Folk Religion’ was necessary for parents to bury their dead baby with some hope of resurrection.
The outcome of the repurchase would secure the southern boundary of the cemetery, and in areas where there had been no burials, it would provide land for new graves in years to come.
* Incorrect. - The purchase of the land back from the Ulster Wildlife Trust was fiercely resisted by the diocese and I was informed by Brian Gibson that “There was no financial benefit to the church in bring the land back, we are in the business of making money” (Brian Gibson 2009 pers comm)
The cemetery is divided into two sections A & B and thanks to Tom Hartley a map was prepared dividing the cemetery into sections (65 in total).
* Incorrect. - The original map was drawn up by the niece of Dan Skelly in 1979-80 when she worked at the cemetery office temporally during her holiday from college.
It was her map, with Dan’s information annotated, that was supplied to Tom Hartley. I have the original hand drawn map in my position and a copy will be supplied to the Minister. One obvious mistake on Tom Hartley’s map supplied, is the absence of row ‘KG’. as mentioned above re: the War Graves.
The map supplied from Tom’s book starts with row ‘LG’, however there are recorded burials in row ‘KG’ meaning that the map boundary for burials is incorrect.
Dan Skelly worked as a grave digger at Milltown Cemetery from 1969 to 1977. Hereturned to the cemetery in late 1979 and was offered the position of Cemetery Manager by John O’Connor, the administrator at that time.
Dan remained in this position until 1997 and has signed an affidavit to the effect that he buried babies in the large ‘Pits’ in the land which has now been decimated by the recent work at Milltown.
(Area ‘C’ in Alastair’s map)
He also confirmed that he laid out graves in the southern section of the 6.28 acres (Section ‘D’ referred to as such in Dr. Ruffell’s 2009 report) and personally buried adults and infants in graves at this location. Examination of the ariel photographs of the cemetery, clearly shows the bottom two sections of this land laid out for use to the extent of the historic boundary.
Dan Skelly and Micky Kerr have both stated that there was a separate registration book for the Poor Ground burials in section ‘D’ at Milltown Cemetery.
Each section has a specific reference so that every plot within the cemetery can be identified. A portion of Section 24, most of Section 27 and all of Section 33 was initially allocated as Poor Ground. There are approximately 65,000 burials in these sections essentially comprised of deceased persons who were unable to afford an individual burial plot. By 1937, these sections became the centre of the cemetery as new portions of ground were purchased.
* Incorrect. - The whole of section 24 was allocated as poor ground, which can be clearly seen from the arial photographs of the cemetery from 1952 (can provide). It is the western section which was reclaimed in the 1970’s and is the location which related to the family mass graves.
Consequently, land at the southern part of the cemetery comprising of sections 63/64 and 65 were allocated as Poor Ground. The first burials took place in January 1937 in section 63, and it closed in October 1943.
The first burial in Section 64 (misnamed as the “babies plot”) took place in September 1943 and it closed in March 1967. There are a considerable number of adults buried in this section including the front row known as the “Polish War Graves”.
* There were originally two rows of Polish Soldiers graves. When some of the deadmwere repatriated, these graves were then used again. It is these graves in row ‘KG’ that currently lie partially under the road.
Section 65 opened in November 1966 and closed in 1992.
* Where are the records for the burials in section 65, as the register of burials stopped in 1986?
According to Dan Skelly, burials continued in this section until the cemetery closed in the late 1990’s. It is within this section that the ‘Pits’ described by past cemetery staff are located, including grave number ‘OG138’ which contains 399 recorded infant burials. Dan Skelly stated that he buried 30 infants just after they had been advised to stop recording these burials, which is where I get the figure of ‘429’ allocated to the huge grave. This would also back up the findings of Dr Ruffel’s report for this area (‘C’ in the map) that the evidence is for co-mingled remains across the area instead of the clear outlined graves.
There are approximately 10500 burials in these sections comprising of adults and babies (a considerable number of whom were stillborn).
* Agreed, although my estimation would be much higher to allow for babies buried at night and for whom there is no record.
There are approximately 75000 buried in the poor ground sections in Milltown and over 80000 in the equivalent plots in the City Cemetery.
* I take it then, that the diocese accept that there are approximately 64,000 buried in the Upper Poor Ground? Why then did you reclaim a large number of Poor Ground Graves in this land in the 1970’s and why did the Environmental Health have to contact the cemetery at that time to stop the practice as they had received complaints of bones in the skips?
A number of incorrect assertions were made by third parties to the committee on the 19th of June 2024
At no time did the diocese or Bishop Treanor state that the land returned to diocesan ownership by Ulster Wildlife would not be used for graves. The outcome of seeking the return of the land was to provide a definitive boundary to the cemetery and to secure the long- term future of Milltown. An undertaking was given by Bishop Treanor that not only would the “babies” plots be preserved but steps would be taken to protect and memorialise the plots with the consent of relatives individually.
* Incorrect. - Yes, he did. He promised faithfully, both to me personally on a number of occasions, and to the relatives of those buried in this land that the ground itself would never again be disturbed. As I have already stated, the church resisted the return of this land, and it was at a meeting in the Sinn Fein office on the Falls road that Gerry Adams told the Ulster Wildlife Trust and diocese representatives “You are selling the land back, and you (Brian Gibson) are buying it”. (Gerry Adams Pers Comm 2010)
It is incorrect to state that as a consequence of the land (6.2 acres) being returned by Ulster Wildlife Trust that 11000 “souls were brought back into the cemetery”. An independent survey was undertaken, the summary of which is at Appendix 2, and confirms while there are indications of some burials the area is largely free of human remains. Any identified burial location will not be interfered with.
* Incorrect. - Once again, they state in this submission that 10500 are buried in this one section, most of which was included in the sale to the UWT. The destruction of two thirds of this land will already have removed evidence of these burials, with the removal of the huge soil heaps which was conducted in early morning by lorries.
(Photo of the lorries coming in during early morning to remove the soil. The videos and photographs will allow you to see the level of the destruction).
It is incorrect to state that Milltown has issued news that it is releasing new areas for burial close to the “babies graves”. It will be several years before this land is suitable for burials and in the.
* Firstly, you admit that you are planning to sell this land as graves going forward. Even though the report from Alastair Ruffell states that these sections have evidence of ‘Burials and co-mingled remains’ across much of the area.
meantime, work will be carried out to protect and memorialise the “babies graves”.
* You have already destroyed much of the burials on this land. Why could you not simply leave that small section untouched? I would point out that I accepted the job from Msg Colm McCaughan on behalf of the diocese, on the understanding that as they had “No money to pay for surveys and archaeologists” (Colm McCaughan Pers Comm 2008) I accepted the promise made by Colm McCaughan that any land returned would not be used for burials again, in lieu of payment. Your actions have now broken this contract.
It is incorrect to state that the only mother and baby home to be investigated for burials is in Newry. The diocese is currently engaging with the Truth Recovery Programme in locating and providing details of burials relating to Nazareth Lodge, St Joseph’s Babies Home, St Mary’s Good Shepherd Home (laundry) and Marianville Good Shepherd Mother and Baby Home pursuant to the Preservation of the Documents (Historical Institutions) Act 2022.
* I stated that ‘Marionvale was the only Mother and Baby Home investigated so far’ I conducted the investigation into this institution in 2017 for any evidence of marginalised burials at the site, none were found. It was to my knowledge at that time, the only home to be fully investigated for burials.
I have also given evidence to the Mother and Baby Home Commission in relation to the Newry Home. Babies from other Mother and Baby Homes mentioned above are buried in the section of Milltown Cemetery which has been so badly disturbed in 2024. These burials are clearly evident in the cemetery records. (I can supply a copy of the research evidence for the institutional burials at Milltown if required)
It is accepted that a number of entries in the Milltown records are inaccurate, but these are a very small minority (less than 0.0002%) and evidence from other adjacent entries and chronological information enables the administrators to reasonably conclude where the burials are located.
* ‘Reasonably conclude’! In other words, the cemetery staff do not know for sure? I will be conducting my own survey of the locations of graves in the Bog Meadows section to indicate the correct location and the number of potential damaged graves. It will be available soon.
Several of the historical institutions such as the Good Shepherd Sisters and Nazareth Sisters have purchased graves in the main body of Milltown and the City Cemetery to allow for those in their care to receive burials together with memorialised headstones.
* They do have graves, but these are not for the babies, they are recorded in mass graves across the bottom sections currently under scrutiny. They are also recorded in many of the mass graves in the older Poor Ground.
It is incorrect to state that “poor ground” was recovered by the cemetery in the 1970’s. The poor ground sections have never been disturbed, and all the graves and records remain intact.
* Incorrect. - In February 2024, I was present in the cemetery when one of the diggers uncovered a disarticulated human femur, in land which the cemetery had stated did not contain any burials. Police were involved and in response the cemetery management informed them that these were bones from elsewhere in the cemetery, from graves which were reclaimed in the 1970’s. (Further supporting by Dan Skelly’s information)
One example, was a baby exhumed on Thursday the 11 th of September 2008 from grave number UF76-A and reburied in the baby plot
In 2007, twelve new graves were allocated in the Poor Ground section beside the ‘Cattle Path’ but as the first grave was opened, human remains fell into the grave from under the carpark.
Nevertheless, a double grave was sold to the family of George Gillan on the 1st of January 2008 for £6000.
On the 9th of April 2008, a woman found bones at what they thought was the Baby Plot, but in fact the location was further south at the site of newly prepared graves in what is known as the ‘500’s’. Again, supporting the evidence from Dan Skelly that he personally buried babies and adults in unmarked graves in section ‘D’.
It is incorrect to state that “digging has taken place where the babies are buried”. The ongoing programme of maintenance and modernisation required the attention of essential works including upgrading of drainage and pathways. Prior to any of the current work being carried out, a further independent report from Northern Archaeological Consultancy Ltd was obtained to provide a clear and defined boundary of the location of all burial sites, including baby burials.
* You cannot define the boundary of the burials at this location, because you have re-worked this area so many times that the remains are mingled with the landfill that you allowed to be dumped there over many years!
You have not addressed my question from June 19 th as to “What size was given to NAC for the graves on this land?”
The cemetery management keeps pushing that the graves are 8ft x4ft, when in fact all the historic grave in Milltown, including the Poor Ground graves, are 9ft x 4ft 6ins.
When I started the research back in 2008, I was informed that paths already laid out on this land for new graves, had been excavated by the builder. I found the builder, Mr. John Carson and asked him about this, he told me that no excavation had ever taken place, he had simply been asked to tidy up the land and lay new concrete paths 8ft apart.
A summary of this NAC report is included at Appendix 3 and is availed on the diocesan website
It is incorrect to state that the poor ground is unconsecrated ground. All of Milltown is consecrated ground.
* It is now! Because we asked Noel Trainor to bless it.When a burial is conducted, it is the grave that is blessed by the priest who is present.
The burials in these mass graves were not conducted in the presence of any priest, they were considered outside the remit of care of the church and unworthy of memorialising, therefore these graves were not ‘blessed’.
If you want to contest that this was hallowed ground, how can the diocese justify the sale of the land to the Ulster wildlife trust in 2000? It was also against the teaching of the Catholic Church to bury unbaptised infants in hallowed ground, hence the tradition of burying infants in Cillini across the landscape.
Section 65 is an area specifically for mostly stillborn babies from the City and Royal Hospitals and it is incorrect to state that any grave was left open between 1974 and 1986.
* Incorrect. - When the research started, the wooden covers which were used as a temporary cover for open graves were still present on the site (Photographs). If you look at OG138, this one grave was continually used from 1972 to 1986, according to the cemetery’s own records.
Gravediggers such as Dan Skelly and Micky Kerr said these were not regular graves, but large ‘Pits’ consisting of approximately four to six graves in size, which remained open for years.
However, if we look more closely at the information supplied to NAC for the benefit of their survey, I will bet they were advised that OG138 was simply an 8ft by 4ft plot which would result in the incorrect location of the extent of the area of burials.
There are detailed records of every burial including names and date of burial. It was not unusual for a considerable number of babies to have the same plot reference, but these remains were buried individually and with care and compassion albeit that most remains were quite frequently just ounces in weight.
* They arrived from the hospitals in a cardboard ‘Shoebox’. - OG138 has 399 recorded burials to this grave number in the cemetery records and Dan Skelly has stated that the decision was taken by the cemetery administrator (John O’Connor) to stop recording these babies as ‘No one was ever going to come looking for them’ (Dan Skelly 2009 pers comm) I have supplied one personal account of a baby buried within this ground in a mass grave, it does not represent anything even remotely akin to ‘Care and compassion’. (Kathleen and Jim Chambers baby in NG61)
No records have been “tippexed” out.
* When I asked the cemetery manager (Dara Barrett) what had happened to the information for the individuals originally buried in the mass graves reclaimed during the 1970’s, I was told that they had been ‘Tippexed out’.
I also have a copy page from the cemetery records which clearly indicates that ‘Tippex’ was used to change information. (Can supply)
It is incorrect to state that “mass graves” are being dug up and resold.
* I have in my possession a survey map conducted by the cemetery in 2008 indicating the location of planned new graves in the area of the carpark beside the Polish War Graves and the land to the north of it (The Baby Plot).
These new graves would have completely destroyed the existing graves already in the land.
This same area which the cemetery has now ringfenced to protect.
Once again, the records clearly show thousands of burials in mass graves already in this area. These graves had been tarmacked over to provide the carpark.
It was this carpark which had to be removed early in the investigation in 2009, as I often had to bring relatives to this spot and tell them that the baby they were searching for, was lying under their car!
Milltown has never “sold” a used grave since its opening in 1869.
* Incorrect - I have evidence again from families who have come to find a family grave, only to discover it has been sold and someone else’s headstone it present.
Dan Skelly’s wife is buried in one of the reclaimed graves at the top of the old Poor Ground and has a new lease for the grave.
Milltown has never on any occasion been closed. There have been occasions over the years when the sale of new graves has been paused while new land areas settle but those with existing leases will always have their right of burial honoured.
* I have never spoken about the rights of existing lease holders to bury in graves they hold, that is not my business, but the availability of no new graves was reported in the newspapers in 1980 and the fact that the available soil depth over the mass graves has had to be utilised over decades, demonstrates the absence of land for new graves.
The sale of graves on the land purchased back from the UWT demonstrates that there is no new ground in Milltown Cemetery.
A couple who decided to pre-pay for their funeral and grave at Healy Brothers have been advised that ‘When they die a grave in Milltown will be found for them, but that someone would have been in it previously’!
There is no Section D in Milltown Cemetery, and it is incorrect to state that any area at the bottom of the cemetery beyond sections 57-65 have been laid out for graves, nor are there any burials in this land as per three independent reports.
* Section ‘D’ is the demarcation used in Dr. Ruffle’s report of 2009 for the southern half of the returned 6.28 acres. The map within the report is attached to the diocese response here, section ‘D’ is also referred to within the report. - Did anyone actually ever read the report?
The most recent report states unequivocally “The result of the trenching exercise also indicates that anecdotal evidence concerning vast numbers of unknown burials within the 6 acres extending to at least the boundary with the UWT land appears to be incorrect as no burials were uncovered to the east of the western end of Trench 49A.”
* Trench 49 was requested by me when the excavation was conducted in 2010. The geophysical survey did not pick up an anomaly at this location, however I had already tested this location and identified that it contained coffins. When trench 49 was opened
(Approximately 40ft in length running north-south) it exposed the top shallow layer of baby coffing, orientated north-south instead of the usual Christian east-west.
The archaeology in the trench also contained evidence of coffins leading further east into the Bog Meadows. I asked Martin Graham to add another trench at right angle (49a) and to follow the archaeology as far as it went. There were broken coffin in this trench, but the cemetery stopped the trench continuing as far as the boundary, stating that it was too expensive.
The excavation only reached the top layer of burials in all trenches, none were explored further to see lower layers of burials.
Another trench in the baby plot had to be abandoned before the level of burials was reached due to the amount of landfill over the area. The excavation team were worried about the danger of asbestos since they had reached material from the 1970’s.
This would correspond with the later containing broken coffin boards etc.
Although Milltown Cemetery issues leases of 75 years for the purchase of a grave, there has never been a grave which has been resold after the lease expires.
In contrast, Glasnevin Cemetery in Dublin has embarked upon a programme of selling old and untended graves where leases have expired.
* Our focus here is on Milltown and the protection of all Poor Ground within the cemetery. The placement of headstones for Poor Ground burials across the cemetery, with no allocation even remotely close to the site of the grave it memorialises, raises concerns.
Firstly, the fact that the diocese owns these headstones, means that in the future they could be removed without the permission of the family and the ground reclaimed for use at some point in the future.
The same concern applies to the older ground. I met with Martin Graham in 2022 to request on behalf of my ninety-nine year old my mother, that she be allowed to sponsor a headstone for grave ME75, which contains one adult and a number of infants, including her brother Edward who died in 1936. It was refused.
There are no missing records in Milltown Cemetery.
* Once again, ethnographic evidence from a number of past cemetery staff, gravediggers and office staff, have stated that there were record books for burials in the southern section of the returned land (Section ‘D’). No such register is available.
There was an article in the Andersonstown News some years ago in relation to the discovery by a women passing the cemetery, of a number of the registration books in a skip at the gate of Milltown.
The article apparently reported that the books had been thrown out by mistake. Dara Barrett has said that when he took over as manager of the cemetery, there had been a fire and all the burial registration books were lying in the corner of the office with water running down the wall.
Milltown Cemetery has consistently required a subvention from the diocese annually of up to £200k in some years.
* Irrelevant, unless the diocese are going to use this as an excuse for decimating the baby plot to increase revenue?
Dara Barrett asked me to witness a meeting he had with Martin Grahan in 2011 with regard to irregularities and issues regarding missing money at the cemetery.
Martin Graham said he would investigate, but Dara Barrett was sacked.
The records of Milltown cemetery have never been kept in St Peter’s Cathedral. Once digitisation is complete the original records will be kept in the diocesan archive in a fireproof room which was recently inspected by the Truth Recovery team.
* Martin Graham made this statement in December 2023 when myself and Susan had a meeting with him and Gareth Hughes in Lisbreen. Susan asked where the record books for Milltown were at that time and Martin replied “They’re in the attic of St Peter’s, and God forbid there is ever a fire.” (Martin Graham pers comm 2023)
No graves have ever been reclaimed. No disease has been discovered in the Cemetery land.
* When the graves were reclaimed in the older Poor Ground, Environmental Health became involved as they had received a report of bones in skips at the cemetery and the work stopped.(Could the Minister get any further information on this)
The two “campaigners” who appeared before the committee on June 19th were offered the opportunity to meet with the diocese on several occasions and were provided with a copy of the report by Northern Archaeological Consultancy Ltd.
Despite multiple opportunities, they declined the invitations to meet as the report factually disproved a substantial amount of their unfounded and unmeritorious claims which have contributed to the anxiety of families who have loved ones buried in the cemetery.
* Given the weight of evidence collected over many years research by myself and others, this statement would suggest that the diocese and the current administrator have little knowledge of what has transpired in Milltown Cemetery in the past, and are content to simply look at the financial gain.
We had a meeting with Martin Graham in December 2023 and he lied about the nature of the work intended for the site. I reminded him on that occasion of the shallow nature of the burials and the need to be mindful that not all burials would be recorded in the cemetery office.
He assured us that they were only putting in a few small drains to help with the waterlogged nature of the site. He was asked if the cemetery planned to sell any of that land, to which he replied ‘No’.
Susan asked if they could have that assurance in writing and he replied ‘Yes’.
We are still waiting.
The photographs of the of destruction of this land and subsequently the removal of any evidence of burials show the level of disregard they have for the dead placed in their care.
We have been waiting for the new bishop to be appointed to whom we could appeal and advised Eugene Hagan of this.
We are still waiting for that invitation.
The Diocese of Down and Connor, while accepting hurt has been caused in the past, continues to serve the pastoral needs of the people of Belfast and beyond.
* The diocese just sold 73 acres for development, while the Catholic population of Belfast needs a new cemetery.
Instead, they are content to revisit Milltown again and charge £3500 per grave plus opening fees. How many new graves are they planning for?