Growing interest in stories of notable women buried in Derry City Cemetery

Marking International Women’s Day, local historian Seamus Breslin has curated a bespoke tour of the graves of famous Derry women in the City Cemetery.

Speaking to Derry News, the irrepressible Seamus, a member of the ‘Friends of Derry City Cemetery - Historic Headstones’ group, said he had wanted to acknowledge the “truly immense contribution” women had made to the history of Derry.

As the City Cemetery is a hidden gem in Derry’s tourist offering, an intrigued Derry News wrapped up warm for a whistle-stop sneak peek.

Poignantly, the ‘Dead Famous Derry Women Tour’ began at the Little Angel’s plot - the resting place of some of the city’s babies. Heartbreakingly Seamus said there was always a parent there visiting a grave.

Seamus then guided us to the grave of Annette McGavigan (14) who was shot dead by a British soldier on September 6, 1971.

“This young girl had all of her life in front of her,” said Seamus. “The Bogside Artists painted a mural in the Bogside in her memory and they said they painted the butterfly in her mural black and white and if peace ever comes, they will colour in the butterfly “because butterflies should be beautiful” 

“They also depicted a rifle - which could shoot and kill people - but if peace comes, they said they would break the rifle because a broken rifle can’t kill anyone. 

“It is actually a symbol. They were thinking of a way to commemorate all the children that died in the Troubles. 

“I had a woman here from Holland a wee while ago and she had a daughter the same age as Annette. She was standing here in tears when I told her what had happened to Annette.”

Next we came to the grave of Bridget Bond.

Seamus had no hesitation in likening Bridget to Rosa Parks, who refused to give her bus seat up to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama, in the States, on December 1, 1955. 

Rosa inspired the Black community to boycott the Montgomery buses for more than a year, until bus segregation was abolished in November 1956.

“I ask visitors if they know who Derry’s answer to Rosa Parks is,” said Seamus. “When they say, ‘No’, I say ‘This woman here, Bridget Bond’. 

He said: “In the 1960s, when my Mammy was having 11 children and her sister Maureen, whose son Jackie [Duddy] was killed on Bloody Sunday, was having 15 children and women were doing what their husbands told them, what your Mammy told them, what the Church told them, Bridget Bond was having none of it.

“She was down taking over the Guildhall, protesting. She was sitting down blocking roads. As you can see, she has the Civil Rights symbol on her gravestone - the dove of peace and the scales of justice. 

“Bridget was a great woman, who unveiled the Bloody Sunday Memorial in 1974 - the greatest honour you could bestow on anyone in Derry.”

An engaging raconteur, Seamus told the story of a grave being dug at the top of the cemetery in the 1980s.

“While they were digging the grave, they came across a Pit Cairn Burial from the Bronze Age - 2,000 years ago. Archeologists from Queen’s University came down and they ascertained that, because of the earthenware in the grave, it was a child’s burial ground.

“Astonishingly the grave was not preserved or marked in any way, they just filled it in again. The exact geographical position can be found online. Women on my tours often say, ‘Isn’t it amazing, 2,000 years ago, a woman thought this would be a lovely place to bury her baby.”

With the Inquest into the Stardust nightclub fire in Dublin ongoing, it was fitting the next grave we visited belonged to Shantallow’s Susan Morgan who perished, along with 47 other young people that tragic St Valentine’s night.

Terrible tragedy closer to home was brought into focus at the graves of IRA Volunteer Ethel Lynch (22) who died in a premature explosion on December 3, 1974, and the Richmond and Murray families who were killed on April 15, 1941, when a Luftwaffe bomb was dropped on Messines Park in the Pennyburn area of the city, killing 13 people.

At the bottom of Derry City Cemetery, which can be accessed from the Lone Moor Road, we visited the grave of hymn writer extraordinaire - Mrs Cecil Frances Alexander, which faces the iconic Derry Walls. Most famous for the Christmas Carol ‘Once in Royal David’s City’. 

Seamus said he was at a loss to explain why more mention was made of such a famous woman buried locally. “I actually had to clean her headstone myself a couple of weeks ago. It was filthy dirty and you could hardly read the inscription,” he said in disbelief.

Another famous and accomplished  musician buried in Derry City Cemetery is Honoria Tompkins Galwey. 

“Honoria was born in Derry on June 7, 1830 to the Reverend Charles Galwey and his wife Honoria Tompkins Knox, who was from Prehen House in the city,” said Seamus. 

“The family lived in Moville before moving to “Gortgowan” a house on the shores of Lough Foyle. 

“The teenage Honoria gathered tunes from the locality and transcribed them in notation. She also noted the origins of each tune, for example The Reel, ‘The Pigeon on the Gate’ was learnt in Moville in 1849 from a blind fiddler called Paddy the Slithers.”
No visit to Derry City Cemetery would be complete without seeing the grave of Sr Clare Crockett. 

“It is situated in the newer part of the cemetery,” said Seamus, “and has become a site for pilgrimage for local people and visitors alike.”

In the summer of 2001, Sr Clare went to the convent of the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother in Spain, where she took the name Sister Clare Maria of the Trinity and the Heart of Mary.

On April 16, 2016, while she was playing the guitar and singing with her companions, the house where she was staying collapsed due to the 2016 Ecuador earthquake. Hours later she was found lifeless under the rubble. She died due to multiple injuries in Playa Prieta, a community of Riochico Portoviejo, Ecuador.

A number of healings and fertility miracles have reputedly been attributed to her by people who prayed for her intercession, and a 2020 article in The Irish Catholic referred to calls for her to be declared a saint.

A visit to Derry City Cemetery is a must for visitors and locals alike to do the ‘Dead Famous Derry Women Tour’ justice.
Having completed the tour, Derry News made her way to the nearby Creggan Country Park’s Tasty Reel Café for a warming cuppa and a bowl of soup. Highly recommended.