Graveside Relics Banned At West Belfast Cemetery

Family members of still born children are amongst a group of people left fighting to leave tributes such as cuddly animals, crosses and plagues at a cemetary in West Belfast.

According to a number of media reports bereaved family members whose loved ones are buried in the Bog Meadows area of Milltown Cemetery in west Belfast are putting up a fight against the graveyard’s officials who have ordered them to remove all 'memorials'.

The administrator at the Milltown Cemetary has told the Daily Mirror that that request was down to essential drainage work that needs to be carried out at the cemetery. She said this is why the instruction to remove religious and non religious artefacts was launched.

However The Belfast Telegraph have reported that one woman from Crumlin, whose stillborn brother is buried at the graveyard, was outraged by the request which she has described as 'grave robbing'.

She told the newspaper: "After years of not even knowing where my brother was buried we have finally found his grave and we have somewhere to grieve. But now with no consultation at all we are being told to move the wee teddybear, the first one my brother has ever had, and a stone prayer book and flowers so his grave can be grassed over."

Relatives of the deceased buried in this area of the graveyard have until Monday to remove graveside memorials.

(LB)