Milltown Poor Ground and Cillin, County Antrim, N. Ireland
Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives
Antrim Index
Copyright
Contributed by Mary Theresa Antonia Maguire 
Photos
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MILLTOWN POOR GROUND AND CILLIN, COUNTY ANTRIM, N. IRELAND

Note:  The spelling is Cillin and Cillini (pl). This is an Irish derivative
which translates to "Little Graveyards"

Homemade markers used by relatives to identify the approximate location of mass
inhumation graves which contain adults and infants buried in a marginalised
context in unconsecrated ground to the east of Milltown Cemetery and currently
known as the Bog Meadows.  This area represents 6.28 acres which the Catholic
Church bought back in December 2010.  The rest of the 37 acres originally sold
by the church has just been surveyed by Ground Penetrating Radar to identify
just how far the burials extend; the report is due in August 2011.


MAP OF CILLIN IN ANTRIM

This is how the Milltown Cemetery trustees and managment treated the land which
was proven to contain the graves of tens of thousands of infants prior to the
2009 research.


Pic 1: This land had been previously covered by newly planted woodland after it
had been sold to the Ulster Wildlife Trust by the cemetery trustees in 2000.
Those trees in the background which still remain in situ have been identified
through geophysical methods to cover more graves.

Pic 2: Every parent has a name for their child buried here, it is now an
important aspect of this research that the Catholic Church recognises the
wishes of relatives to be allowed to record the names of those buried in this
previously anonymous way.

Pic 3: "Memory of a Dear Daughter" A poem which has been placed at an infant
grave which is under what was the cemetery car park.

Pic 4: When relatives or parents first discover that their baby is buried in an
approximate spot, they rush to mark it immediately, using whatever is to hand.
This image is one of the most pitiful I have seen, I have a tendency to check
periodically that it is still intact and if it has been blown over I will
always erect it again.

Pic 5: Note the wreaths tied to the fence because this was as close as
relatives could get to the graves they knew were in the Bog Meadows.

Pic 6: This small corner of the cemetery along the north eastern boundary is
where the staff told relatives all the babies were buried; the graves in fact
cover many acres.

Pic 7: Baby Gerard Martin Rice. 13 June 1961.

Pic 8: The red flowers tied  to the tree are in remembrance of a baby buried
somewhere in the woods.

Pic 9: This photo demonstrats the problem of identifying the mass inhumation
graves present in this landscape.

Pic 10: Baby Kathleen McShane - 17-10-69

Pic 11: Three generations of my own family who came together to fight for the
babies of the Bog Meadows.


All images Copyright by Photographer