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| Thirty-six
members of the group recently enjoyed a cultural
visit to Drogheda. The three day trip set
out on Friday November 25th and returned on
Sunday November 27th. |
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| Upon
arrival, the group were met by Sean Collins,
the former Lord Mayor of Drogheda, who gave
a talk on the town and it's role in the Great
War and the part played by Ireland as a whole
during that conflict. |
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| The
next morning the group made its way to the
Drogheda War Memorial which
is a celtic cross with the names of 400 men
from the area who fought in World War One.
A wreath was laid on behalf of the visitors
by Derek Graham from Dungannon and our current
Chairman, Wesley Wright, pronounced the exhortation. |
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| From here the
group moved on to St Peters Roman Catholic Church
where they saw Oliver Plunkett's head, which is
preserved in the building. Following this trip,
the group moved on to the Lord Mayor's Parlour where
they view items from the Williamite era including
a mace and a sword presented to the town
by King William III in 1692. The members
also enjoyed a talk on Drogheda by the current Lord
Mayor, Tommy Murphy. Next on the agenda for the
group was a visit to the sites of the Battle of
the Boyne and a talk on the events by Sean Collins. |
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The group then
visited the birthplace of John Boyle O'Reilly, the
famous poet and writer and member of the Irish Republican
Brotherhood. The group also toured a cottage once
lived in by famous poet Francis Ledwidge who, despite
being a strong Irish nationalist, was also a firm
believer in the war effort and died in the great
war in Belgium in 1917. They then visited a church
on the outskirts of Drogheda where St Patrick once
preached. The day came to a close with a visit to
Collon Church of Ireland, the church of Lieutenant
Emerson VC, who served with the 9th Inniskilling
Fusiliers (the Tyrones) who won a Victoria Cross
on 6th December 1917. A wreath was laid on behalf
of the group by Harry McKinney and Jim Gallagher,
who were also members of the Regiment. |
| On Sunday,
those on the trip traveled to an early Christian
settlement at Munster Boyce which has two Celtic
crosses similar to the one in Ardboe. The site
also boasts an original round tower which would
have been used as a place of refuge by monks during
the Viking era. Sean Collins then showed the group
a home designed by Christopher Wren and owned
by a cousin of Field Marshall Montgomery. From
here it was on to St Peter's Church of Ireland
which features stone carvings from the plague
era and the group also noted the many headstones
in the graveyard displaying the names of those
who had served in the British forces. After this,
they made their way to Church of Ireland on top
of the hill and south of the river which is built
close to the site where Cromwell breached the
city walls. The site also contains the grave of
a WW1 British soldier, which lies close to the
grave of a former IRA volunteer who was shot by
Michael Collins' men during the Civil War period. |
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