Knighting Ceremony Success

The first Knighting Ceremony in our newly restored St. Mary Magdalene Chapel was the solemn highlight of a long weekend enjoyed by brethren from all over the northern hemisphere. Friends old and new were collected from Dublin and Belfast airports on the Thursday at the start of a packed schedule of events and sight-seeing visits which lasted right through til Sunday evening.

The Knighting Ceremony itself is a dignified, emotional and private event which we never photograph or video. It is a very special occasion for the initiates and existing brethren only. But the preparation instruction and oath-swearing service, which took place in a private traditionalist chapel elsewhere in the Province were recorded and footage and pictures from this will be released shortly.

So too will the great videos we took at the other places which our visitors enjoyed so much. The first of these on the Friday was the Ulster-American Folk Park, where our stateside guests were amazed to learn that no fewer than 17 US Presidents had Scots-Irish roots. The park contains many period buildings which ,facing demolition on their original sites all over Ulster, were dismantled and reassembled at the Folk Park.

These include the farmstead from which the Mellon brothers - the founders of wall Street - emigrated, and a whole street of typical old Irish shops. There are also historic buildings shipped back from the New World, as well as a faithful full-size replica of one of the sailing ships on which so many Ulster and Irish folk made the passage to America.

Keep up to date!

Optional email code

Sign up to our newsletter today!

Send me email updates