Milltown Cemetery is a large cemetery in west Belfast, Northern Ireland. It lies within the townland of Ballymurphy, between Falls Road and the M1 motorway. Milltown Cemetery opened in 1869 as part of the broader provision of services for the city of Belfast's expanding Catholic population. The cemetery was an important development in the episcopal reign of Bishop Patrick Dorrian of the Diocese of Down and Connor. Although the cemetery's history and story is often presented as a nationalist and Irish Republican site, in fact the overwhelming majority of the approximately 200,000 of Belfast dead who are buried there were ordinary, unknown Catholics. Within the cemetery there are three large sections of open space, each about the size of a football pitch, designated as "poor ground". Over 80,000 people are buried in the cemetery's poor grounds, many of whom died in the flu pandemic of 1919. Since 2007, the cemetery has undergone extensive work, reversing years of neglect.
;Harbinson Plot: William Harbinson died while interned in Belfast Prison and was buried at Portmore, Ballinderry. A Celtic cross was erected to his memory, and that of other republicans who were imprisoned in County Antrim jails, in Milltown cemetery in 1912. This plot contains the remains of 5 IRA volunteers: ;County Antrim Memorial Plot: Unveiled on the 50th anniversary of the Easter Rising, the plot honours the county's republican dead. 34 IRA volunteers who died while involved in paramilitary activity during the late 1960s and early 1970s are buried there. ;New Republican Plot : In 1972, the National Graves Association purchased the ground which would become the New Republican Plot. It has space for 46 graves, each to accommodate four burials. The first burials here took place in July of that year. This plot contains the remains of 77 IRA Volunteers who have died while engaging in paramilitary activities or as a result of imprisonment or assassination, not only in Belfast but those killed as far away as Gibraltar. Here are buried those volunteers who died as a result of hunger striking. ;Winifred Carney Grave Winifred Carney, a lifelong socialist was a member of the Irish Citizen Army and Cumann na mBan. In 1916 during the Easter Rising she was secretary to Commadante James Connolly and the last woman to leave the G.P.O. ;Sean McCaughey Grave ;INLA Plot : The INLA Plot contains the remains of ten members of the Irish National Liberation Army ;Giuseppe Conlon Grave
Priest's Row
Another significant section of the cemetery, facing onto the Andersonstown Road is the plot where many senior Catholic clerics, who were important educational, social and cultural figures in post-Partition Northern Ireland, are buried. Many of the graves are adorned with high Celtic crosses. There are over two dozen priests of the Diocese of Down and Connor buried here almost all of them with strong pastoral and familial links to West Belfast. Among the most prominent are:
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission maintains and registers the graves within the cemetery of British Commonwealth service personnel, covering years 1914–21 and 1939–47. There are 102 of World War I and 52 of World War II, besides 10 foreign national servicemen. The focal point is a Cross of Sacrifice erected by the Commission after World War I, near which stands a Screen Wall memorial listing those of that war whose graves could not be individually marked.
The Belfast Blitz occurred in the April and May 1941 when approximately 1000 citizens of the city, known and unknown, perished. After the burials of those who could be identified the city authorities were left with human remains were positive identification was not possible. It was decided to have two large 'en masse' burials, one at the City Cemetery and one at Milltown. In 2012 the memorial was restored.
