Belfast City Cemetery and Visitor Centre – Members Study Trip and Tour
In Person EventJoin us for an NIMC members study trip and tour of the Belfast City Cemetery Visitor Centre and Outdoor Classroom
The NI Museums Council Study trip will provide an opportunity to learn about the history of the City Cemetery and how you can use the information at the Visitor Centre as a source for your own research into local history.
Attendees will be met by Donald Bell, Engagement Officer at the City Cemetery, to hear about the practicalities of delivering the NHLF project, the challenges, opportunities and the legacy going forward.
Attendees will also receive a historical tour of the cemetery by author Tom Hartley.
This event is available only to members of the NI Museums Council and can be booked on Eventbrite or by requesting a booking form from catherine.doran@nimc.co.uk
Background
Dating back to the 1860s, Belfast City Cemetery is one of the oldest public cemeteries in the city.
It is the final resting place of many notable figures including Edward Harland, co-founder of Harland & Wolff; Margaret Byers, suffragist and founder of Victoria College; and Sir William Pirrie, chairman of Harland & Wolff in the Titanic era, and former Lord Mayor of Belfast.
The site contains many points of historical interest, including the Poor Ground where over 80,000 souls lie in unmarked graves and an Underground Wall, which was built in Victorian times to separate Protestant and Catholic graves. City Cemetery is the last resting place of 570 Commonwealth servicemen and women of both World Wars, making it the largest Commonwealth War Graves site in Northern Ireland.
The project
With funding from the National Heritage Fund, Belfast City Council has delivered an exciting project to enhance the existing built and natural heritage of City Cemetery and increase people’s ability to access and understand it, while protecting and preserving it for future generations.
The new Visitor Centre includes an exhibition space, an audio-visual learning experience and opportunities to carry out research at dedicated workstations. An Outdoor Classroom has been built that can be booked by schools, community groups and summer schemes amongst others.
There are a range of short video presentations from actors playing the parts of Victorian cemetery workers, industrial employees and video presentations on the two research terminals by specialist contributors: Bronagh Murray on Celtic Crosses, Tom Saunders on the War Graves, Belfast Jewish History with Steven Jaffe and Tom Hartley. The terminals also offer facilities for searching for grave locations showing an image of the headstone.
Guided tours are available and a smartphone app has been developed to support self-guided history walking tours. Both the tours and the interpretation panels are available in English and Irish.
