Various

cenotaph A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...

s have been erected in Northern Ireland: the

UK National Inventory of War Memorials The War Memorials Register (WMR), formerly the UK National Inventory of War Memorials, was founded in 1989 to build a comprehensive record of every war memorial in the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Based at the Imperia ...

provides comprehensive details of each monument in their Online Database (links provided). A private website also maintains very detailed information on a number of these monuments. Most communities in Northern Ireland can account for losses in the conflicts of the 19th and 20th centuries especially the World Wars. To honour those that died, it was common practice for communities to contribute toward a fund to build a

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...

. These cenotaphs are often quite striking and frequently the only decorative or sculptural structures to be seen in smaller settlements. Such cenotaphs are rarely the only memorial erected by a community: stained glass windows, plaques and similar artifacts can be found in churches and other public buildings. Indeed, often buildings themselves, especially British Legion Halls, or gardens were constructed as memorials too.

References

{{Reflist Monuments and memorials in Northern Ireland Cenotaphs in the United Kingdom