Our Regular Tour Guides
Mark Doherty
Mark is lead guide & researcher of Friends of Friar's Bush. He is very local, born half-a-mile from the graveyard, and he is a graduate of Queen's University. His family has been in Belfast for hundreds of years, and the earliest members are probably buried at Friar's Bush.
An enthusiastic local historian, he is also a professionally-qualified tour guide. Mark has many years of guiding experience, and has worked in some of Belfast's oldest and most impressive buildings including Clifton House, City Hall & the Harbour Office.
Dr. Robyn Atcheson
Dr. Robyn Atcheson is a social historian and history communicator. Robyn teaches and writes on social history, the social history of medicine and women’s history in Britain and Ireland from the early modern period to the nineteenth century.
Robyn has over a decade of experience in teaching, lecturing and public speaking, and historical consultancy.
In recognition of her academic work and work as a public historian Robyn was elected an Associate Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2025.
Hailing from East Belfast, and a graduate of Queens University 'next door', along with Mark, Peter was involved in Friends of Friars Bush from the start, and offers general tours as well as tours focusing on east Belfast, also facilitating tours with local actor, Stephen Beggs. Peter has written a number of books about local burial places, is the lead guide at our sister site at Balmoral Cemetery and runs tours of Shankill graveyard with Mark. Peter also looks after George Best's childhood home which is nothing to do with Friar’s Bush, but he never tires of telling people about that!
Peter McCabe
Risteárd Ó Murchú
Risteárd Ó Murchú is a Belfast-based historian, artist, and experienced tour guide specialising in the city’s rich political and social history.
A graduate of Queen’s University Belfast with a Masters degree in Irish History, he combines academic expertise with personal insight from growing up in Belfast during the recent conflict.
Risteárd has several years’ experience leading engaging taxi and cemetery tours, including at Friar’s Bush Graveyard. With a deep understanding of West Belfast’s murals, he offers visitors an informed, balanced, and memorable perspective on the city’s past and present.
Jack Lamb
Originally from Edinburgh, Jack worked in Glasgow and Stirling before moving to Belfast in 1995.
He is a poet, a tour guide and a globe-trotter. He loves dressing up – particularly as the Friar of Friar’s Bush, and has some ability with sign language, which is useful for tours.
He loves sharing some of the poignant prose & poetry that makes this graveyard unique – using his lovely Scottish accent to share, with great pathos, the intriguing history of this place and its people.
Emma Casey
Emma Casey is an OCN qualified tour guide and founder of Wee Walks Belfast, a company specialising in women’s walking tours.
She also started the Rosa Mulholland Book Club, inspired by the Belfast writer whose family are buried in Friar’s Bush - so it’s fair to say she loves to talk about the forgotten women of Belfast!
Emma is also a guide on the open top bus in Belfast and was always interested in local history, being a former Secretary of the East Belfast Historical Society.
She says Friar’s Bush Graveyard is her favourite place to work.
Andrew Johnston
Andrew Johnston is a Level 4-accredited tour guide and ‘dark historian’, specialising in horror entertainment tourism.
Andrew has been guiding at Friar’s Bush since 2024, including his own ‘Dark Side’ tour, exploring the macabre history of the graveyard. Body snatching – Andrew’s specialist subject – features heavily!
Andrew maintains a busy schedule of public talks at venues across Ireland. His talk Burke & Hare: Body Snatchers, Serial Killers, Ulstermen sold out its full run at the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Before tourism, Andrew was a newspaper journalist for more than a decade.
Jordan Robinson
Jordan Robinson is a County Down–based guide with a particular interest in burial sites and gravestone symbolism.
Jordan also runs his own company, Copper Top Tours, leading trips through Belfast’s sporting and social history. He brings a different perspective to his tours—mixing history, storytelling, and the odd bit of humour to keep things interesting.
When he’s not wandering around graveyards, Jordan is an award-winning stand-up comedian and sports commentator. So if nothing else, you’re guaranteed a guide who can talk… and keep talking.
Louis Edmondson
After 30 years working as an award-winning radio and television producer, director and presenter with BBC Northern Ireland, Louis Edmondson retired. However, he couldn’t stay still and discovered a whole new vocation as a tour guide, in which his previous experiences as a local and political history programme maker have been put to good use.
As a Level 3 guide, his diverse tours include Belfast Hop On, Hop Off Open Top Bus experiences, Giant’s Causeway, Lagan Valley and other N.I. locations tours, as well as Friar’s Bush Graveyard and Clifton House and Cemetery tours.
Susan Hollywood
Susan Hollywood studied history and politics at Queens University, a stone’s throw from Friars Bush. She has always been fascinated by what lay behind the wrought iron gates of this fascinating graveyard. Now she knows its secrets and enjoys sharing them.
Susan taught history and politics for over 30 years and after retiring trained as a Green Badge Tour Guide. She has experience as a tour guide in diverse settings such as Hillsborough Castle , Belfast City Hall, as well as walking and coach tours in and around the city.
Judith Skelton
Judith Skelton attended Queen’s University Belfast, just a short distance from Friar’s Bush Graveyard, where her fascination with Belfast’s hidden history first began.
Particularly interested in social history, she became drawn to the stories of ordinary people whose lives reflected the hardship, humour, sorrow, and resilience of generations of Belfast people.
An experienced Green Badge Tour Guide, Judith is passionate about keeping the memories of old Belfast alive through storytelling and local history. Judith guides walking and coach tours throughout Belfast, Northern Ireland, and Donegal.
Other Friends of Friar’s Bush
Jackie Hewitt
Jackie Hewitt is a passionate amateur genealogist, Jackie has dedicated herself to uncovering and preserving the histories of those laid to rest in Belfast’s burial grounds and beyond. Her meticulous documentation spans Friar’s Bush, Balmoral Cemetery, Castlereagh Presbyterian Churchyard, Bangor Abbey, and Killysuggan Burial Ground, among others.
Jackie works closely with local tour guides, sharing the family histories she uncovers so they can bring these ancient burial grounds to life - transforming names on headstones into vivid, human stories that connect past and present.
Stephen Beggs
Stephen is an actor, theatre director, writer and workshop facilitator based in Belfast.
He has worked with many of the theatre companies in Northern Ireland as well as work in film and radio.
As well as performing on stage, he can often be found out and about bringing characters and stories to a wide variety of outdoor and non-arts spaces.
Working with Peter and Mark, Stephen has performed in theatrical tours of a number of cemeteries, playing a wide range of fascinating people at their final resting places.