Opened in 1869, Belfast City Cemetery was the first burial ground in the city to include a dedicated section for Belfast’s growing Jewish community. Among its most notable memorials is the Jaffe Monument, erected by Sir Otto Jaffe – Jewish linen merchant, philanthropist, and twice Lord Mayor of Belfast – in honour of his father, Daniel Joseph Jaffe, a prominent businessman and a key figure in Belfast’s Jewish history.

Local tradition claims that Daniel Jaffe’s spirit still lingers near his memorial. Witnesses describe seeing a melancholic male figure wandering the cemetery, sometimes heard groaning softly as though weighed down by sorrow. Those who have encountered him say the apparition is deeply unsettling, even though it makes no attempt to approach the living.

But Jaffe is not the only ghost associated with Belfast City Cemetery.

Just outside the cemetery gates, on the Falls Road, another disturbing tale is often repeated. One bleak December evening – cold, wet, and pitch-dark—a taxi driver was making his way along the road during the busy Christmas rush. Despite driving cautiously, he struck a woman who ran suddenly into his path near the cemetery. Tragically, she died at the scene.

In the years that followed, during the same week each December, several motorists reported a terrifyingly similar experience: a woman appearing out of nowhere, sprinting onto the road just outside the cemetery walls. Drivers slammed on their brakes, convinced they had hit someone—only to discover that no one was there. The figure vanished instantly, leaving them shaken and confused.

Many believe this is the restless spirit of the woman killed near the gates, doomed to relive the final moments of her life every year in the run-up to Christmas—a tragic echo imprinted on the road she never safely crossed.