City Cemetery Londonderry

City Cemetery Londonderry, Derry City Cemetery

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The City Cemetery itself is located on the Lonemore Road, Londonderry. It was established during 1853. The first burial took place in December of that year (a ten month old child named Robert McCelland). The first adult followed in January 1854 (Joseph Bigger). Since then more than seventy thousand souls have been laid to rest.

The war graves in this cemetery represent a much smaller number than the rest, but they do represent individuals who were witness too (and have been involved in) massive destruction of life which would supersede the total buried around them. A great example of this would be the Battle of the Somme (1916) which had twenty thousand fatal casualties on the first day. These massive numbers have made the event a statistics exercise and my hope is to bring individuality to this event and the many others that these service personnel, buried here, represent.

The war burials in the city of Londonderry’s (Derry’s) cemetery have been somewhat forgotten due to the unique circumstances of the internal conflict of the island of Ireland.

Borders, boundaries, affiliations and lives would all change sharply and dramatically in the 100 odd years since 1914, but the sailors, soldiers and air personnel buried within the city would remain untouched by the local war. The graveyard itself would take a political turn also, with nationalist and republican burials and memorials now alongside those of the British Empire, Commonwealth and also the allied dead of the World Wars.

The City Cemetery must be one of the most unique in all of Europe, and contains a great reflection on all major events of both wars and the country.

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