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16 April 2019

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BOOK REVIEW: Balmoral Cemetery by Tom Hartley

Tom Hartley pictured with his book 'Balmoral Cemetery'

"Tom Hartley is to be thanked for his painstaking work and research in bringing to light the amazing achievements of so many forgotten lives."

In this, his third book detailing the history of Belfast's cemeteries Tom Hartley delves into the stories and personalities of those buried in Balmoral Cemetery.

Sited not far from the major traffic junction at Lisburn Road and Balmoral Avenue, across from the main entrance to the city's Musgrave Park Hospital, is Balmoral Cemetery. It has been disused and largely hidden from the view of the many, many thousands whose commute takes them past it daily and has given up its secrets to Tom Hartley.

As someone who has not only read Tom's previous explorations of the city's Milltown and City burial grounds, but who sees them as reliable resources and historical reference points this latest publication is no different. This is a valuable reference book.

The format of all three of his books is such that the author details the subject's life and times and then develops the theme with historical data that puts them in their time and place.

This is true of those buried in Balmoral.

What is really significant and in a way really ironic, in my opinion, is that it has taken a republican like Hartley – a former Sinn Féin mayor of Belfast – to plough this deep furrow and unearth the stories of people who not only impacted upon the history of Belfast but whose influence went way beyond the city.

A reader or reviewer might ask why, given that many of those whose stories were excavated by Hartley, were so central to unionist life and politics that it is only now through the work of a republican that their stories are coming to light.

The life and times of the Reverend Hugh 'Roaring' Hanna whose 'fiery' rhetoric has long been associated with anti-Catholicism is explored as is that of the Reverend Henry Cooke.

An uncompromising preacher Cooke also opposed the visit of Daniel O'Connell to Belfast in 1841. Despite his hard-line adherence to scripture – or possibly because of it – a crowd of 150,000 attended the unveiling of a statue to Cooke in College Square, Belfast in 1876.

He had died 8 years previously in 1868.

However it is the exploration of Presbyterianism that is at the heart of the book with figures such Hanna and Cooke taking the primary roles on the conservative side of the story while on the liberal side there is the story of William Wilberforce, a leading abolitionist, who played no small part in ending the slave trade.

Unlike many major British ports, Belfast was not used in the exportation of human beings as slaves.

Of course, no tome like this is complete without the story of the radical women who were away ahead of their time in challenging patriarchy and demanding equality.

Two such were Isabella Tod and Margaret Byers who championed the campaign for women to be included in the Intermediate Education (Ireland) Act.

While both women were socially radical they also opposed Gladstone's First Home Rule Bill of 1886 and for this reviewer exposes the contradiction at the heart of Presbyterianism.

Presbyterians in the tradition of Tone, Emmet and the McCracken's of the 1798 era advocated an end to British rule in Ireland and this is where their real radicalism lies.

Whereas in the stories of those buried in Balmoral Cemetery so many fought for and served the British Crown or advocated on its behalf.

This is not to their stories are not worth telling, of course they are and Tom Hartley is to be thanked for his painstaking work and research in bringing to light the amazing achievements of so many forgotten lives.

Published by Blackstaff Press | Balmoral Cemetery is available for purchase here.

Price £12.99

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