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Date Posted: 07:48:19 07/06/02 Sat
Author: Lynn Msc
Subject: Desecration of graves nothing new

Deplorable desecration of graves is nothing new


I READ with much interest the Belfast Telegraph report regarding the destruction of 27 headstones of Roman Catholics in Carnmoney cemetery. I would like to say that I like many other right thinking people totally deplore this kind of behaviour by people who are blinded by bigotry and hate.

Such thugs have no respect for the dead or the loved ones who have to endure the pain of their loss and the pain that goes with the violation of a grave. The sad fact is that this kind of behaviour is not new to Northern Ireland.

The fact that in Carnmoney cemetery 27 headstones where destroyed is only like a grain of sand on a beach compared to the destruction of headstones in the City Cemetery in west Belfast in the past 30 years. Protestants have had this kind of vandalism carried out continually and nothing has been done by Belfast City Council.

No one has called for guards to be posted or for cctv to be installed, nor have they called for an emergency meeting with the Security Minister.

It doesn't end with Protestant headstones being selected for destruction but even our dead of two World Wars have been picked on. Their headstones lie in a dark damp shed in Lady Dixon Park in what is called the stables area of the park.

These brave men, many of whom are from other countries, including Canada and Norway, gave their life for all of us. This is how we repay their sacrifice.

Many people in Northern Ireland and throughout the UK don't even know that these men are buried in what is now unmarked graves in west Belfast. Even worse, no one seems to care .

During the late 1970s the cemetery suffered greatly from vandalism but up until then the Commonwealth War Graves had not been affected but from December, 1979, more than 180 of the commission's headstones were broken, mostly beyond repair, on at least 11 different reported occasions.

Temporary markers placed on the vandalised graves were also damaged and the name plates ripped off. At that time it appeared that some of the vandalism had been deliberately aimed at the war graves in the cemetery.

Now 22 years later the only thing that identifies where the headstones once stood is a peg bearing the grave number which has had to be sunk beneath the ground behind each of the graves so that they will not be ripped off and so that they can be identified at a later date whenever they will be permitted to come back to their rightful place.

The allegedly hard working but over paid Assembly members and the councillors have not lifted a finger to have these headstones reinstated. Why is this I ask? Could it be that it is not as glamorous as the Somme region in France or is it an embarrassment to them and this country?

I find hard to believe is that the Assembly debated the threat of an airport being built in the Chaulnes area of France where many Ulster, and Irishmen lie at rest without any vandalism to their graves and yet in our own country we have already destroyed the resting place of more than 300 commonwealth war graves due to vandalism.

I intend to bring the attention of the Canadian consul the fact that there are graves of Canadian airmen in the City Cemetery and there are also the graves of two Victoria Cross holders - Valentine Munbel, a surgeon, who won his VC in 1857, Private Bernard McQuirt who won his VC in 1859.

Perhaps the new Lord Mayor will call all sides together to show respect for all our dead from all parts of Northern Ireland.

RICHARDeplorable desecration of graves is nothing new


I READ with much interest the Belfast Telegraph report regarding the destruction of 27 headstones of Roman Catholics in Carnmoney cemetery. I would like to say that I like many other right thinking people totally deplore this kind of behaviour by people who are blinded by bigotry and hate.

Such thugs have no respect for the dead or the loved ones who have to endure the pain of their loss and the pain that goes with the violation of a grave. The sad fact is that this kind of behaviour is not new to Northern Ireland.

The fact that in Carnmoney cemetery 27 headstones where destroyed is only like a grain of sand on a beach compared to the destruction of headstones in the City Cemetery in west Belfast in the past 30 years. Protestants have had this kind of vandalism carried out continually and nothing has been done by Belfast City Council.

No one has called for guards to be posted or for cctv to be installed, nor have they called for an emergency meeting with the Security Minister.

It doesn't end with Protestant headstones being selected for destruction but even our dead of two World Wars have been picked on. Their headstones lie in a dark damp shed in Lady Dixon Park in what is called the stables area of the park.

These brave men, many of whom are from other countries, including Canada and Norway, gave their life for all of us. This is how we repay their sacrifice.

Many people in Northern Ireland and throughout the UK don't even know that these men are buried in what is now unmarked graves in west Belfast. Even worse, no one seems to care .

During the late 1970s the cemetery suffered greatly from vandalism but up until then the Commonwealth War Graves had not been affected but from December, 1979, more than 180 of the commission's headstones were broken, mostly beyond repair, on at least 11 different reported occasions.

Temporary markers placed on the vandalised graves were also damaged and the name plates ripped off. At that time it appeared that some of the vandalism had been deliberately aimed at the war graves in the cemetery.

Now 22 years later the only thing that identifies where the headstones once stood is a peg bearing the grave number which has had to be sunk beneath the ground behind each of the graves so that they will not be ripped off and so that they can be identified at a later date whenever they will be permitted to come back to their rightful place.

The allegedly hard working but over paid Assembly members and the councillors have not lifted a finger to have these headstones reinstated. Why is this I ask? Could it be that it is not as glamorous as the Somme region in France or is it an embarrassment to them and this country?

I find hard to believe is that the Assembly debated the threat of an airport being built in the Chaulnes area of France where many Ulster, and Irishmen lie at rest without any vandalism to their graves and yet in our own country we have already destroyed the resting place of more than 300 commonwealth war graves due to vandalism.

I intend to bring the attention of the Canadian consul the fact that there are graves of Canadian airmen in the City Cemetery and there are also the graves of two Victoria Cross holders - Valentine Munbel, a surgeon, who won his VC in 1857, Private Bernard McQuirt who won his VC in 1859.

Perhaps the new Lord Mayor will call all sides together to show respect for all our dead from all parts of Northern Ireland.

RICHARD

DUNCAN ALBURY,

Carnmoney, Co Antrim.
Publication Date: 05 July 2002

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