Milltown Cemetery

Milltown Cemetery on the Falls Road is the main Catholic and nationalist cemetery of west Belfast, where the graves of IRA hunger strikers — including Bobby Sands — and many victims of the Troubles are located. The cemetery is a significant site in the history of the conflict and is visited by people from across Ireland and beyond.

The graves of the hunger strikers, in the Republican Plot, are clearly marked and visited by many people who leave flowers and messages. The cemetery itself is large and peaceful, and the headstones document the full social history of the nationalist community over 150 years. Walking here gives a more direct encounter with the human cost of the Troubles than any museum exhibit.

things to do sight
A story
In March 1988, a loyalist gunman attacked the funeral of three IRA members at Milltown Cemetery with grenades and a pistol, killing three mourners and injuring sixty. The attack was filmed by television cameras and broadcast around the world. Three days later, at the funerals of those killed at Milltown, British army corporals who had driven into the cortège were killed by the crowd — another event filmed and broadcast worldwide.