January 15, 2004 Flash: Hunger Strikers' Graves Desecrated
A plot containing the grave of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands has been damaged in an overnight attack by vandals in a west Belfast cemetery.

Sixteen graves in the republican plot in Milltown Cemetery, which contains the graves of hunger strikers and three provisionals killed by the SAS in Gibraltar, were desecrated.

Headstones were smashed and flowers laid by the families were scattered around the recently refurbished memorial.

West Belfast councillor Michael Browne said: "Last night the newly refurbished Republican Plot in Milltown was desecrated in an outrageous act of wanton vandalism. Up to sixteen individual graves have been destroyed.

"I have spoken to a number of families who have loved ones buried in the plot and they are extremely distressed by what has happened overnight. This is not simply a republican memorial, it is the actual graves of many IRA Volunteers and Sinn Fein activists killed over the past thirty years.

"The monument was recently refurbished through the voluntary work of Belfast Republicans. Republicans throughout the city will be angered at this turn of events and I am sure they will rally to the aid of the National Graves Association as they seek to rebuild the monument.

"Those responsible for this attack are beyond contempt and they need to reflect long and hard upon their actions."

The graves have been vandalised in the past.

In January 2000 more than 20 granite memorial plaques were damaged, some beyond repair.