Newsletter Dec 2002

The Boys March Proud for Yule Tide Celebrations
By Ian Starrett

It was jingle all the way at the Apprentice Boys Lundy Day parade in Londonderry on Saturday.

The 314th anniversary of the Shutting of the Gates on the old walled city by 13 boy apprentices as the Jacobite army of King James approached had a distinctly festive flavour about it.

It took place under the twinkling white lights of Londonderry’s illuminations and as well as watching and taking part in the various parades and ceremonies during the day many visiting bandsmen and Apprentice Boys took the opportunity to get in a spot of Christmas shopping.

The colourful parade took just 18 minutes to pass through the Diamond, compared to the two and a half hours of the much larger Relief of Derry celebration in August. As they passed the War Memorial their flags and banners were lowered and bands stopped playing.

Elsewhere the music wafted out loud and clear and Jingle Bells, White Christmas and all the familiar festive tunes of this end of year time were played with zest.

The entire Fusiliers Band from Newtownabbey all wore Santa hats, complete with pigtails. The big drummer with Blair Memorial Pride of Omagh band dressed up as Father Christmas.

It had been a day of traditional events, beginning with the initiation of new members at the Memorial Hall, a ceremony which can only take place inside Derry’s Walls, and also during the morning the General Committee met to install new Governor William Allen, who replaced Alistair Simpson who had been at the helm for nine years.

In the afternoon, the keynote speaker at the Service of Thanksgiving at St Columb’s Cathedral was Rev Martin Smyth MP, after which a wreath was laid on the siege heroes mound inside the cathedral grounds.

And finally as the bands again played the magical music of Christmas – as well as the more traditional tunes of Londonderry’s Walls and the Sash – an effigy of Lundy The Traitor was burnt.

As the flames licked up into the December night sky, Governor William Allen summed up his first day in charge of a march by the loyal order.

“Overall I was extremely happy with the parade,” he said.