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A BRIEF HISTORY OF MILLTOWN CEMETERY
REPUBLICANISM AND MILLTOWN There is no doubt that Milltown Cemetery is a famous landmark the world over due to the Republican graves contained within it. Many of the burials which have taken place in this ground have been screened worldwide with the most notable being that of Bobby Sands, the 1981 hunger striker who died in the H. Blocks. Another single incident which helped make it a famous also occurred at one of the Republican Plots when a lone Loyalist attacked the funerals of three IRA members who were shot dead by the SAS. Images from Milltown were shown around the world when an almost suicidal attack was carried out by Michael Stone against a crowd numbering many thousands. Three people died in this attack with Stone being captured by the crowd and then rescued by the RUC and arrested. For some people this is the only history they know and therefore it is here that our history of Milltown begins.
I
n the year 1867, Ulster’s first Republican martyr of the Fenian period, William Harbinson, died whilst in terned in Belfast Prison (Crumlin Road.) A former Colour Sergeant based at Victoria Barracks in the New Lodge area of Belfast he was one of many members of the Fenian Brotherhood who were sent into, and used within, the British Army for the purpose of recruiting for the movement. With the knowledge of weapons and military protocol he possessed, Harbinson became training instructor to the various Fenian circles, instructing them in the use of arms and military tactics.
The hesitant tactics and refusal to give the word for action to thousands of men like Harbinson and his comrades was one of the mysteries connected with the leadership of the movement at that time, and left them open to harsh and prolonged criticism. It is since recorded that a member of the movement (an Irish-American) is alleged to have passed on information to the British Government of the activities and personnel of the movement and, in a subsequent lightning round-up around Antrim and Down, Harbinson and many of his comrades were arrested and interned in Belfast Prison. While interned there, William Harbinson died suddenly from a heart attack at the age of 44 on the 9th of September, 1867. He was buried in the ancient monastic grounds at Portmore, Ballinderry, Co. Antrim. Thus William Harbinson became Antrim’s and Ulster’s first martyr of the Fenian movement. Forty five years later in 1912, a plot of ground was secured in Milltown Cemetery and a monument in the form of a Celtic Cross was erected not only to commemorate the sacrifice of William Harbinson, but also to act as a memorial to all who served with him in the ranks of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and to those who suffered with him in Belfast Prison. Included among the seventy two names inscribed on the monument are those of twenty Protestant Republicans who were members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and also the names of Colonel Kelleher, Captain John Dwan, Peter Healey, Captain T. H. O’Brien, Lieutenants Patrick Hassen and Mark O’Neill, officers in the United States Army and all of whom were in Belfast Prison with Harbinson. These Irish-Americans had been members of Clan na Gael who had come over from America to take part in the Fenian insurrection. Those who are buried in the plot are: SECTION COMMANDER SEAN McCARTNEY. 8th MAY 1921 From Norfolk Street he was killed on active service by British Troops on Lappinduff Mountain, Co. Cavan. A member of D.Coy, 1st Battalion I.R.A., a monument was erected to him on Lappinduff. At the time of his death he was part of a flying column of 12 volunteers made up from the 1st Battalion of the Belfast Brigade.