Buried in Belfast

Warping at York Street Flax Mill, c.1900. © PRONI D2324/1

This self-guided trail map highlights some of the extraordinary stories of women laid to rest in Belfast City and Milltown Cemeteries.

Women in the Archives

Women in the Archives Buried in Belfast

Buried in Belfast

The trail map compiles research undertaken by 24 participants from Women in the Archives, a community engagement programme aiming to uncover hidden female voices.

Led by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) and the Linen Hall Library, groups used historical records from both organisations as the building blocks for their exploration of women’s heritage in Ireland.

Women in the Archives is a part of Making the Future, a project supported by the European Union’s PEACE IV Programme, managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) Disclaimer: Anyone undertaking these suggested trails does so at their own risk.

A Self-Guided Women’s History Tour of Belfast City and Milltown Cemeteries www.makingthefuture.eu

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THANKS TO: Maureen Bunting | Brigid Campbell Naomi Connor | Niamh Dolan Brenda Downes | Linda Faith-Kelly Ann Fee | Joanna Fyffe | Jill Geary Noreen Gravelle | Judy Grove-White Winnie Mccoll | Frances McLaughlin Jenny Methven | Paul Moyna Colette Mullan | Jim Murphy Larry Murphy | Helena Ralph Madeline Ross | Fiona Spence Lesley Spence | Nuala Starkey Margy Washbrook Special thanks to Tom Hartley for his guidance and for sharing his knowledge.

Women in the Archives Team: Laura Aguiar | Jason Burke Lynsey Gillespie

#MakingtheFuture #WomenInTheArchives

Clockwise from top left: Winifred Carney (left) with mother, Sarah Carney, and sisters Maud and Mabel. © Photo Album of Ireland (CC BY-BY-NC-ND 4.0); Gertrude Annie Taylor. © IWM (WWC H2-127-1); Margaret Byers. Courtesy of Victoria College Belfast; Margaret Montgomery Carlisle. Courtesy of Belfast City Hall; Irene McKibbin. Courtesy of Girlguiding Ulster; Florence Lewis at Queen’s University graduation ceremony. © PRONI D4185/A/1/1

5. Elizabeth Begley Born: 1 May 1909 | Died: 18 March 1993 PLOT: OF-78.A

9. Mairéad Farrell Born: 3 March 1957 | Died: 6 March 1988 | PLOT: PQ-528 51.B

Elizabeth was born in Carlow and moved to St. James Park, Falls Road, around 1928. She worked in a shoe shop, before beginning a successful acting career, which earned her the title of the ‘Grande Dame of Ulster Theatre’. She was a founding member of the Ulster Group Theatre, which showcased local plays, many of them seen as controversial for the time. Elizabeth worked there for 20 years before moving to radio and TV. She built up a formidable reputation as virtuoso character actor, in shows including, The McCooeys, Dixon of Dock Green, and The Liver Birds. Her final role was as Mrs Duncan in the critically acclaimed Harry’s Game.

Mairéad was a feminist, socialist and republican. She joined the IRA aged 14 and later studied Political Science and Economics at Queen’s University, Belfast.

In 1976 she was sent to prison for 14 years for IRA activity. She spent almost 11 years in Armagh Gaol where she was the Officer in Command over female IRA prisoners and participated in many protests. She was shot dead, aged 35, by SAS soldiers in Gibraltar whilst on active service. Her funeral service was attacked by a loyalist gunman, resulting in three deaths and many more injured.

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6. Eleanor Corr Born: 10 October 1883 Died: 7 February 1949 | PLOT: HF-40.B Elizabeth Corr Born: 13 February 1887 Died: 4 March 1987 | PLOT: HF-40.B

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Eleanor and Elizabeth were born on the Ormeau Road and were employed as a bookkeeper and typist, respectively. They joined Cumman na mBan in October 1915 and travelled to Dublin in April 1916 to take part in the Easter Rising. Around the same time, their brother, George, was killed in the Battle of the Somme.

Following their return to Belfast, the sisters remained active in electoral politics and local history. A mural of both sisters can be seen on the Lower Ormeau Road, South Belfast.

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11. Winifred Carney Born: 4 December 1887 Died: 21 November 1943 | PLOT: FA-207.B 1. Cecelia Kearns Born: 27 March 1876 | Died: 20 May 1922 PLOT: IC-88.A

3. Eileen Howell Born: 3 July 1949 | Died: 12 June 2004 PLOT: FE-91A

Cecelia Kearns was born in Belfast in 1876 and lived in Cavendish Square, Falls Road, with her sisters and parents, Edward, an engineer, and Mary. Cecelia and two older sisters ran a hardware store at 161a York Street. On a Saturday night in May 1922, just before 8pm, Cecelia went to bring in a bucket hanging outside the shop. She was hit in the chest by a sniper and died early Sunday morning in the Mater Hospital.

Eileen was a passionate community activist in West Belfast. Eileen worked for a short period in the Belfast Co-Operative Society and for the Civil Service in Stormont Estate. She married Ted Howell in 1972 and they had two sons. In 1973 Ted was arrested, leaving Eileen the main breadwinner. She became involved in her local H-Block/Armagh Committee. In 1980 she went to the College of Business Studies and later graduated with a degree in Social Policy from Ulster University.

Eileen campaigned for employment in West Belfast and later became Falls Community Council Director.

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Milltown Cemetery 546 Falls Rd, Belfast, BT12 6EQ Milltown Cemetery opened in 1869 as the main Roman Catholic graveyard for Belfast. Approximately 200,000 people are buried here. In addition to family and individual plots, there are sections for religious orders, and three large ‘poor grounds’ where around 80,000 individuals are buried in mass graves, many of whom died in the flu pandemic of 1918-1920. The cemetery’s history is often associated with Irish nationalism and republicanism, evidenced on gravestones throughout the cemetery and within the three republican plots. Milltown gained worldwide notoriety when a loyalist gunman attacked mourners at an IRA funeral in 1988, killing three people and injuring many more. Visiting Milltown, you can explore the social and political history of Belfast, reflected in the landscape and told through the stories of the families and individuals buried here.

Tour duration: 1.5 hours

* Discrepancy found while researching dates.

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Margaret’s parents Patrick and Rose came from County Armagh. They had 12 children, six of whom lived. In the 1901 census, the family lived in 3 Milan Street, Smithfield. Margaret worked in the local linen mill with her mother and two sisters.

She began as a flax doffer and was later promoted to forewoman. On 12 August, rioting broke out between nationalist residents and soldiers. The soldiers opened fire on a group throwing stones, killing Margaret aged 23.

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10. Margaret Lennon Born: 1884* | Died: 12 August 1907 PLOT: JC-45.B (Unmarked)

2. Eleonor Kelly Born: 9 April 1906* | Died: 5 June 1921 PLOT: TE-45 B Eleonor left her Kilmood Street home on 19 May 1921 to buy sweets and got caught up in a riot between a Sinn Féin procession and loyalists. The trouble came to a head in Seaforde Street and police arrived. Shots were fired and Eleonor was hit in the mouth. She was taken to the Mater Hospital where she died from her wounds on 5 June. * Discrepancy found while researching dates.

7. Regina Coeli Hostel PLOT: IH-6-8.B This grave contains the remains of Mary Burns, Mary Mannion, Rose Bradley, and Gertrude Belmont who were laid to rest in the 1980s and 1990s. The Legion of Mary opened the Regina Coeli Hostel on the Falls Road in 1935 to accommodate unmarried mothers and homeless women.

It moved to Lake Glen Avenue in 1983. The Legion also accommodates homeless men in the Morning Star Hostel on Divis Street.

There is nothing known about the women laid to rest in this grave.

8. Máire Drumm Born: 22 October 1919 Died: 28 October 1976 | PLOT: BA-522.A 4. Poor Clares Sisters PLOT: SE-94/99.A This plot contains the remains of 19 nuns who were originally buried in the Poor Clare Colettine Monastery at 120 Cliftonville Road in North Belfast, from 1949–2005. The convent, which was established in 1924, was forced to close as a result of dwindling vocations. It was decided to reinter the nuns in Milltown in the last week of August 2012. The Poor Clares are an enclosed contemplative religious community.

Máire was the vice president of Sinn Féin and a commander of Cumann na mBan. She worked in Liverpool and Dublin as a shop assistant. In 1946 she married Jimmy Drumm. She joined the NI Civil Rights Association, and helped to rehouse Catholics, whose homes had been burned in 1969. Máire was jailed twice for seditious speeches and led the women who broke the Falls curfew in 1970. In 1976 she was killed by loyalist gunmen, dressed as doctors, in the Mater Hospital where she was recovering from surgery.

Maria Winifred Carney was a suffragette and a scholar trained in shorthand and typing. Engaged by wider social and political events, she became a radical socialist and trade unionist. She joined the Gaelic League and co-founded the Belfast women’s branch of the Irish Textile Workers Union. She also took on an office organiser role with the Irish Transport and General Workers Union and was a member of Cumman na mBan. She was secretary to James Connolly (1912-1916) and remained with him during the Easter Rising, typing the orders for the Irish Citizen Army. She was interned at Dublin, England (1916) and in Armagh (1922).

In 1918 she stood in parliamentary elections but did not win a seat.

12. Patricia & Francis Kavanagh Born: Unknown | Died: 5 January 1953 PLOT: L-205.B Patricia Kavanagh and her infant son Francis, aged about 18 months, were on-board their first ever aeroplane flight traveling from Northolt near London to Patricia’s hometown of Belfast. The flight was their first and last, as it crashed on its way to landing at Nutts Corner.

Patricia and Francis were amongst the 27 who lost their lives.

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3. Rose Dilworth* Born: Unknown | Died: 9 October 1869 PLOT: H-119 POOR GROUND (Unmarked)

8. Margretta ‘Gretta’ Bowen Born: 1 January 1880 | Died: 8 April 1981 PLOT: L-363

14. Margaret Montgomery Carlisle Born: 31 May 1857 | Died: 19 June 1935 PLOT: K-468/9

Rose lived in Tea Lane, Sandy Row, and worked in a local mill. She died following an accident at work, shortly after 6am on the morning of 9 October 1869, typically the time when machinery would have been cleaned and switched on. She suffered a serious head injury and died on admission to the General Hospital off the Donegall Road. The inquest later that evening returned a verdict of ‘accidental death after coming into contact with machinery’. There was a very large turn-out of over 3,000 people at her funeral.

Margretta ‘Gretta’ Bowen was born in Dublin in 1880. Although her sons were artists, Gretta only took up painting in her 71st year. Five years later her work was exhibited for the first time, followed by further exhibitions in Belfast, Dublin and London. Her paintings of local scenes and events were of the ‘Primitive’ or ‘Naive’ School, and according to an article in The Times, ‘whatever she paints she conveys the feelings of happiness, of brightness, of delight in life’.

Margaret Montgomery Carlisle married Viscount William James Pirrie, Chairman of Harland & Wolff shipyard, in 1879. She was known to take a keen interest in his work and the welfare of his employees.

Lady Pirrie was involved with a number of charities and public bodies, including the Royal Victoria Hospital and Queen’s University, and became the first female Justice of the Peace in Belfast. She was also the first woman to receive the Freedom of the City. Following Lord Pirrie’s death in 1924, Lady Pirrie was appointed President of Harland & Wolff.

* Discrepancy found while researching surname.

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15. Margaret Byers Born: 15 April 1832 Died: 21 February 1912 | PLOT: H2-677

This grave contains the remains of eight children and one adult, Agnes Cairns.

The children lived in Sandy Row with their parents Daniel McCutcheon, a soldier and a sawyer, and Sarah Ann (nee Campbell), a domestic servant. Daniel and Sarah married in 1885 in Christ Church, Church of Ireland, Belfast and had 17 children between 1886 and 1914. Ten of these 17 children died, mainly due to illnesses caused by their living conditions, a situation representative of many families and mothers living in Belfast at this time. Agnes Cairns appears to be a friend of the family.

Sadie was 29 when she died on the Lusitania which was torpedoed off County Cork by a German submarine during the First World War. The liner was sailing to Liverpool from New York with 1,962 people on board, 1,191 of whom died. Born in Ballymena, she worked as a typist on board, having moved to Liverpool with her widowed mother and brother. There were riots in the city when the news broke, with violence against German residents. Sadie’s body was one of 224 identified and returned to family in Belfast. This disaster was an event credited by many with bringing the United States into the war.

5. Belfast Blitz Memorial Stone PLOT: V-47/86

10. Florence Lewis Born: 18 August 1862 Died: 23 August 1908 | PLOT: D-637

16. Annie Bridgett Born: Unknown | Died: 25 August 1915 PLOT: P-160

Around 1,000 people were killed in the air raids of the Belfast Blitz in April and May 1941. The second air raid caused one of the great losses of life in any raid outside London during the Blitz. Many women volunteered in the civil defence organisations, some as young as 16 years old, working as Air Raid Precaution (ARP) wardens and others in the women’s voluntary services while holding down their own jobs.

Florence Hamilton Lewis came from many generations of clergymen and lawyers on her maternal grandmother’s side of the family. One of the first ladies to attend Methodist College – until 1869 only boys were educated there – Florence graduated from Queen’s University with a First Class Honours in Logic, and a Second in Mathematics. She married Albert Lewis on 29 August 1894 and had two sons. She tutored them at home, until terminal cancer prevented her.

She died aged 46 when her youngest son C.S. Lewis was nine.

Annie was a founding member of the first women’s Orange Lodge in Ireland. In 1912 she was issued with a warrant to meet in Sandy Row Orange Hall. Her husband was well-known banner artist William Bridgett. Annie had nine children — seven daughters and two sons, one of whom is remembered on a headstone to the right.

Many of Annie’s daughters carried on her legacy within the Orange Women’s Association.

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9. Sadie Hale Born: 1885 | Died: 7 May 1915 PLOT: B-22

Margaret was born in Rathfriland, educated in Nottingham and after marrying John Byers was widowed some 50 years before her death. Following the birth of her son and return to Ireland, she quickly established herself as a pioneer for women’s education. Margaret founded The Ladies’ Collegiate School Belfast, later renamed Victoria College, in 1859, and also campaigned for the rights of women to a university education. She was an early supporter of women’s suffrage and was formative in the Women’s Temperance Association, an organisation which assisted discharged female prisoners.

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Belfast City Cemetery

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Belfast City Cemetery is one of the oldest public graveyards in Belfast, and the city’s first municipal burial ground. Before its opening on 1 August 1869, most other local cemeteries were owned by religious denominations. Situated in West Belfast, around 226,000 people are buried here, including many of Belfast’s wealthiest families. Victorian, Edwardian and 20th century tastes in design and architecture are reflected in its headstones and monuments. Although it is a cross-denominational graveyard, there is an underground wall separating Protestant and Roman Catholic areas, and a section for Belfast’s Jewish residents. There are no new plots available in the cemetery, but burials still take place in existing graves. Tour duration: 3 hours

11. Ulster Female Penitentiary PLOT: F1-379/380 This grave contains the remains of seven females who died between 1889–1946.

The penitentiary opened in 1819 in York Lane, Belfast. Rev. John Edgar, Presbyterian Minister, raised funds for a new building. The penitentiary re-opened in 1839 on Brunswick Street, Belfast, later moving to Ormeau Road, and closed in 1932. Women were received from all over Ulster. The main offences were petty theft, drunken and disorderly conduct, soliciting and vagrancy. Inmates worked in the laundry, were taught sewing to enable them to earn an honest living and reading so they would be aware of their duty as set forth in the Word of God.

Buried in Belfast participants.

6. Matilda Gould Born: 1889 | Died: 27 June 1966 PLOT: A1-90

Elizabeth was born in Newry on Christmas Eve 1862 to the clerk of the Workhouse.

In 1893 she became the first woman to graduate in medicine at Queen’s College Belfast and practice in Ulster. She married Dr. Hugh Fisher in 1896 who died of typhoid in 1904. They had one son who died of his wounds at the Battle of Passchendaele during the First World War. A leading suffragist, she was friends with Emmeline Pankhurst. In 1916 she joined the Royal Army Medical Corp and was stationed in Malta.

In post-war Belfast she was involved with women and children’s health and rights.

She died aged 71 years.

Matilda, 77, a Protestant widow, was the first woman to die as a result of the conflict in Northern Ireland, when a petrol bomb intended for the public house next door engulfed her house on 10 May 1966.

Matilda, who suffered from arthritis and walked with crutches, had gone to bed downstairs. She was severely burned and remained in hospital until her death 48 days later.

MAKING THE FUTURE

Caroline Boas (nee Spiers) was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. She married Herman Herz Joel Boas, a German Jewish merchant 12 years her senior, on 31 July 1861. She had nine children all of whom were born in Belfast.

Her eldest, Frederick Samuel Boas, born July 1862, was educated at Oxford, was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was awarded an O.B.E.. Caroline and her family lived in affluent Windsor Park in South Belfast. She died aged 77, followed eight weeks later by her husband.

Altruist and friend to the deaf, Wilhelmina’s interest in the deaf community was sparked after meeting a friend’s deaf son. In 1860 she became Local Secretary of Derry and Raphoe Diocesan school and later, Secretary of the Ulster Institution. To further her literacy and understanding, she assisted in setting up periodicals and ‘addressed the deaf … as no one else did’. She began The Deaf and Dumb Christian Association (1873) and set up a new Mission Hall at Fisherwick Place, Belfast. This provided accommodation and social activities for deaf people. However, ‘anxiety for her charge and closeness of her labours’ brought on a severe illness, resulting in her death.

Gertrude Annie was a member of the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD).

The VAD was formed in 1909 to provide support in times of war. From July until December 1916 Gertrude served in London Central Hospital which was her last place of residence. She died on 12 December 1916 from pneumonia, contracted whilst serving as a nurse.

Her grave is marked with the inscription: ‘Died in active service.’ In a tribute to her, Reverend Dr MacDermott of Belmont Presbyterian Church said: ‘They are reminded by Miss Taylor’s death that not all the heroes in the war were men.’

19. Clara Copley Born: 14 May 1866* | Died: 14 March 1949 PLOT: M-61 (Unmarked)

7. Julie Livingstone Born: 18 November 1966 Died: 13 May 1981 | PLOT: L2-46 2. Caroline Boas Born: 9 May 1839 Died: 13 November 1916 PLOT: JEWISH GROUNDS, C1-44

Anne Marjorie Robinson was born in Belfast. As a child she showed talent in portraits and landscapes, and with the help of Vere Foster, was awarded three years’ free tuition at the Government School of Art in Belfast. In 1907, Marjorie moved to London and studied with miniaturist Alyn Williams. Between 1914–1923 she exhibited at the Royal Academy and was commissioned to paint a miniature of an Irish colleen for a doll’s house belonging to Queen Victoria’s granddaughter, Princess Marie Louise.

She has 22 miniatures and a self-portrait in the collections of the Ulster Museum.

18. Gertrude Annie Taylor Born: c.1879 | Died: 12 December 1916 PLOT: L-391 12. Wilhelmina Tredennick Born: 1837 | Died: 1891 PLOT: B2-7

1. Elizabeth Gould Bell Born: 24 December 1862 Died: 1 July 1934 | PLOT: P2-213

17. Anne Marjorie Robinson Born: 15 August 1858 Died: 22 October 1924 | PLOT: F2-122

Julie Livingstone was the youngest in a family of 13 children living in West Belfast.

On 12 May 1981, passing a small street protest, she was fatally injured by a plastic bullet fired by a British Army patrol and died in hospital the following day. She was 14 years old. An inquest jury found that Julie was ‘an innocent victim’. Around 1,000 people attended her funeral, including school friends who formed a guard of honour.

13. Irene Winifred McKibbin Born: 3 June 1904 | Died: 5 January 1953 PLOT: J-454 A primary school teacher, Irene had taught in Minneapolis in the United States for a year and was on the staff of Malone College when she died in the BEA plane disaster at Nutts Corner, aged 48. In addition to her teaching, Irene had a lifelong association with Girl Guiding.

She was the Assistant Commissioner for Sea Rangers and Belfast County Commissioner. Irene was travelling back from a meeting of the UK Training Committee when the plane crashed.

More affectionately known as ‘Ma Copley’, Clara Copley (nee Peddis) arrived in Belfast in the 1920s as part of a traveling circus performing in the ‘Chapel fields’ (Alfred Street). Ma Copley made Belfast her home and became the only female licensed boxing promoter in the UK — a unique achievement in the male-dominated world of boxing. She promoted fights twice weekly under a tent in the Chapel Fields with the razzmatazz of a circus. In the 1930s she progressed to the Ulster Hall where she successfully promoted fight nights for another 10 years, establishing a long-lasting legacy and love of boxing in the city. * Discrepancy found while researching dates.

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