The new website for the Lisnabreeny Military Cemetery in Castlereagh, Northern Ireland is now online at www.lisnabreeny.com. We partnered with Tandem Design to create a user-friendly and responsive online resource for this interesting cultural heritage site. Commissioned by the National Trust and the Castlereagh Borough Council, the website features photos and archival data, as well as a short video exploring the site’s history. This resource is of interest to those visiting Lisnabreeny as well as to anyone seeking information about Northern Ireland during WWII, or the American military presence and training near Belfast at that time.

The Lisnabreeny Cemetery has a fascinating history. Just one month after Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, the first American troops arrived in Northern Ireland to begin training to join the Allied forces in the Second World War. Over 120,000 members of the US Army, Navy, and Air Force lived and trained in the hills overlooking Belfast. In the course of this training, 148 servicemen died in accidents, air training, and of natural causes. These soldiers were laid to rest in the Lisnabreeny Military Cemetery. After the war, the bodies of the fallen soldiers were repatriated to the United States or were interred at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial in England. However, Lisnabreeny has continued to hold special significance for the local population, and in 2005 the Castlereagh Borough Council dedicated the site and began a larger project with the National Trust to create a formal memorial site. On September 14th, 2013 the site was dedicated at a ceremony that included a spectacular flyover by “Sally B,” the only airworthy World War II era B-17 bomber remaining in Europe. (The BBC covered this event, read the article here: “Lisnabreeny cemetery tribute to fallen US servicemen“) We were thrilled to be part of a project celebrating this unique part of the cultural heritage of Northern Ireland and the involvement of Americans in World War II. Through this website, we hope more visitors will have access to the site and its history.