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Tuesday night saw Drumderg Loyalists from Keady in South Armagh receive their new attire and marked this special event with a small dedication and service in the local orange hall on Crossmore road just of the outskirts of the town.
Our previous uniform was sold to a Co Down based band namely Rising Sons of the Valley and for various reasons of operational difficulties this sale meant the band was left without a uniform.
Up to this point, the band has supported many of the marching band fraternity events in just jeans and t-shirts, and although the lack of uniform was evident and in some cases unwanted by our members, we decided to still support the bands who have for years supported ourselves as best possible.
Surprisingly morale was high amongst the band even without the uniform, perhaps this was down to a more relaxed atmosphere we have had over the last number of weeks, so this arrival will give the band an added bonus.
The uniform and Colours dedication was well attended by many families and supporters of members from the band as well as the added support from the local Orange and Black districts, bands association and bands such as Bessbrook, Ballyrea, Kilcluney and Cormeen to name a few, I am sure that other members of Drumderg would join me when I comment it was great to see “UNITY and COHESION” and thank these bands for their support.
The service was conducted by the Rev Ron Johnston with scripture reading coming from one of the band members.
The organ on the evening was also played by a member from the band for the hymns of “The banner of the Cross” and “Mine eyes has seen the glory” both of which are very fitting for this type of evening.
On the night, 2 new standards where presented by Rev Johnston the flag of St Patrick and also the Royal Black institution flag.
The girls of Drumderg colour party put in a bit of practice just before the night started and their hard work of the last few years has started to show for them- well done!
A very interesting address was made by the Rev Johnston and the relevance of Flutes and flags and the reasons behind them taking some biblical descriptions as examples. (Perhaps Gary E could follow up on this and his explanation of the Union flag and the reasons why we say RED, WHITE and BLUE and NOT RED, BLUE and WHITE etc etc)
And the evening finished with the National Anthem. (3 versus of it!!!)
Including the lines
O lord our God arise,
Scatter her enemies”
And make them fall”
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their popish tricks
On thee our hopes we fix
Oh, save us all
The night ended with tea and refreshments, I am sure the band would like to thank all those who made donations on the evening which mounted to a very considerable sum and are very grateful for the friends and community around them which favour us well in the future.
To be honest this is the first time in my time in bands that I have ever done this sort of thing, its probably common in these areas either now or at one time but I have never been part of this in my old band anyway.
I am 33 years of age (some say 43 LOL) and I have never in my life sung any more than one version of the Queen…. But I could sing you any loyalist song you want from here lies a soldier to orange wings to YCV LOL.
I enjoyed it and strongly believe our protestant faith is part of who we are and to an extent why we are even here in this land.
For the second time in my short spell with Drumderg I have got my eyes opened and again it makes me think that I made the right decision in travelling the mileage to practice from Belfast.
Thanks Drumderg!
Ron
On the uniform front, we have reversed our colours this time and to be honest looks well.
Its plain in my eyes (But I was called the BRAID king previously LOL), but think it will set us off very well as a unit. The uniform only has 2 colours RED and Navy with white braid.
The jackets are red with white ¼” braid across the front and back with our standard design on the arm again being used.
The navy trousers have a very broad red stripe down them, which sets it off well and the white braid on the jackets will be hard to keep clean along with the WHITE hats, but sets us off well, but hopefully you will like it.
You will never please everyone’s cup of tea but hey that’s the movement we all belong too…
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