Tom Hartley has been active in politics for 42 years and was first elected to represent the Lower Falls on Belfast City Council in May 1993. In 2008 he became the second Sinn Féin Lord Mayor of Belfast. Since 1998, Tom has combined his love of history and interest in the environment by organising historical walks through the Belfast City Cemetery as a part of the West Belfast Festival. Now recognised as an authority on the Cemetery he continues to highlight the importance of this burial site as a repository of the political, social and economic history of Belfast. He is the author of Written In Stone, the history of the Belfast City Cemetery.