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Events
CULTURAL EDUCATION The Society has just finished a cultural education programme in the Donegall Pass area of South Belfast. This entailed working with young adults who normally don’t get involved in community based projects. The reason behide the project was to educate young Protestants about their own culture, so as to make them more confident in articulate their cultural identity in a more positive way. The schools and educational schemes in Northern Ireland has failed in the past to teach pupils about the history of Northern Ireland. With the result that many in the Unionist community know little of their own historical roots. The eight week course on Protestant culture was attended by over twenty five people. The subjects covered were “The Reformation”, “The Siege of Derry 1688/89”, The Battle of the Boyne” “The Somme”. We finished the course by visiting, Fernhill House Museum at Glencairn and the Somme Heritage Museum near Newtownards. As a result of attending the course, many felt more confident and informed about their cultural identity. All have expressed an interest in doing a more advance courses, possibly looking at some aspects of nationalist culture. This project was funded by the Community Relations Council and we are once again grateful for their help and financial assistance.
Drogheda Cultural Weekend 18th-20th June 2004
The society are at present organising a cultural education weekend visit to Drogheda involving 30 people from the Village areas South Belfast. On Friday a tour of the Boyne Valley is planned which will include visits to the “Battle of the Boyne “ and Newgrange neothilic sites. A visit to the Dublin on Saturday will take in sites associated with the Easter up-rising of 1916, as well as a visit to Great War Memorial Gardens. On Saturday night children from Brightlights Highland Dancers from Belfast and the Mary Ormsby Irish dancers from Enniscrone, Co. Sligo, will perform at an Ulster-Scots and Irish cultural night, will be hosted by us in a local hotel. Also appearing will be the Ulste-Scots Folk Orchestra.
Francis Ledwidge Garden Festival 25th July 2004 A number of a society members and the Brighlights Highland Dancers will travel down to Slane, Co. Meath to take part in a Cross-Community event to mark the memory of Francis Ledwidge born in Slane in 1887, befriended by Lord Dunsany, Author and Poet and introduced to the Irish Literary Circle. His first release of fifty poems "Songs of the Fields" was published in 1915. The event is unique in that Francis ledwidge was an Irish Volunteer in 1912. He enlisted in the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers in October 1914, fought in various theatres of war and was killed in the third battle of Ypres on 31st July 1917. He is buried in Artillery Woods Cemetery, Boesinghe near leper, Belgium.
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