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The cemetery is a site of huge historical importance and offers an insight into the development of Belfast during the Victorian period.
Map showing layout of Belfast City Cemetery (PDF - 62.5KB)
Early history
Up until the middle of the 19th century, the majority of burial grounds in Belfast were controlled by religious denominations.These included:
- Friar's Bush - Roman Catholics
- Shankill - Episcopalians
- Balmoral - Presbyterians
- Clifton Street - Belfast Charitable Society
- Newtownards Road - Methodists
- Donegall Road - Board of Guardians.
As the population of Belfast increased, more burial space was needed and plans for a municipal cemetery forthe use of all religious denominations were drawn up.
In June 1866, 101 acres of land on Falls Road was purchased from the Sinclair family.
Design
In 1867, William Gay of Bradford, England was appointed to design the new cemetery.The site was laid out in the shape of a bell, an unusual feature which may reflect the 'Bel' in 'Belfast'.
It was then divided into a number of sections, and each section was given an alphabetical reference.
Between 1866 and 1869, wrought iron gates were installed, boundary walls were constructed and drainage and roadways
on the site were set up.
Layout
It was intended that 17½ acres of the cemetery be allocated for Protestant graves, 15 acres for Catholic burial ground and13½ acres for public or poor ground.
Underground wall
Before the cemetery opened, a nine-foot deep underground wall was meant to divide consecrated and non-consecratedground and separate the Catholic and Protestant sections of the new graveyard.
However, the ground was never used for Catholic burials because of a dispute between Belfast Corporation and Bishop Dorrian over who had ultimate burial rights for those buried in the Catholic section.
The dispute was eventually resolved when the Corporation bought from Bishop Dorrian, for £4,000, the right to
bury Protestants in the ground allocated for Catholic burials.
The bishop then purchased, for a cost of £4,200, 15 acres of land on the other side of Falls Road for a new Catholic cemetery.
Public opening
Belfast City Cemetery opened on 1 August 1869 and the first burials took place on August 4.The first recorded burials were Annie Collins, aged three years, and Isabella McDowell, aged ten.
Both burials, which took place in the cemetery's poor ground, were paid for by the Lord Mayor of Belfast,
FH Lewis.
In November 1869, 57 acres of the cemetery land was reallocated for the building of Falls Park, leaving the cemetery
44 acres in size.
Eleven acres were later returned to the cemetery in October 1880, boosting the graveyard to 55 acres.
In 1871, land was allocated for a Jewish burial ground, located next to Fox Lodge on Whiterock Road.
Glenalina extension
By the beginning of the 20th century, the cemetery was firmly established as one of the largest burial grounds in Belfast.However, more space was needed and, in June 1912, Belfast Corporation purchased 54 acres of the adjoining
Glenalina estate from Henry Patterson, extending the cemetery westwards towards the Black Mountain.
Glenalina is the English pronunciation of the Irish Gleann an Léana, meaning the glen of a low lying grassy place or
water meadow.
The older residents in the surrounding area call it Glendalina, from the Irish Gleann Dá Léana, which is translated as
the glen of two low lying grassy places or water meadows.
This is a more accurate description, as it describes the two meadows separated by the Ballymurphy River.
The first burial in the Glenalina section took place on November 13, 1915, with the interment of 13-year-old Lizzie
Young.
The cemetery was now 109 acres in size and was officially renamed Belfast City Cemetery. It would later be reduced by ten acres, when land was granted back to Falls Park in 1958.
This same land was used to build Whiterock Leisure Centre in March 1983.
War graves
In 1914, a section of the cemetery was reserved for the burial of sailors and soldiers.The first burial was Rifleman Sturgeon, who died on 1 December 1914.
In 1918, a plot of 21 graves in section D Glenalina was used to bury members of the United States army who drowned
in the wreck of the Otranto in October of that year.
The remains of these servicemen were later exhumed and some were returned to America in 1920.
The same year also saw an agreement between the Lord High Admiral and cemetery officials to bury members of the
Navel Forces and their relatives in the cemetery.
Additional information
Here are a selection of maps that show the development of Belfast City Cemetery from 1833 to 1939.Click on the thumbnails to see a larger image (please note that these pictures open in a new window).
