Knighting Conclave - Historic Visits

As well as the instruction, vows and knightings in the actual 2025 Knighting Ceremony, all our visitors were also treated to a whirlwind tour of some of the most historic sites in Northern Ireland. Onew of these is of particular interest to Americans, one has an original Templar connection, and several give fascinating and even moving glimpses into the ancient history of Christianity in the island of Ireland.

Above, we see this year's group during their visit to the Ulster-American Folk Park, near Omagh, Co. Tyrone. Our photo shows Pastor Jim reading them a short piece about the original homestead of the Mellon family, the US banking family who emigrated from this very spot to seek their fortune in the New World.

The Mellons funded the entire park, which features historic buildings rebuilt in a lovely setting, some illustrating life in the Old Country, while others were built in America by pioneers and emigrants before eventually being dismantled satone by stone and rebuilt in the Folk Park. Fascinating stuff!

Another one of our historic visits was to the triple grave of St. Patrick, St. Bridget and St. Columba, in the grounds of Downpatrick Cathedral. The remains of the three saints were moved and reinterred at this stop in the 12th century by John de Courcy, a Norman baron who conquered so much of the east of Ireland and Ulster that for a while he styled himself as "King" - much to annoyance of the actual Kings, first Richard the Lionheart (a great friend of our Order) and later his brother, King John.

As Templars, our group were especially delighted to be taken to the spectacularly situated ruins of Dundrum Castle, perched on its ridge overlooking the Irish Sea. This was built by John de Courcy but, when King John threatened to move against his overmighty subject, de Courcy announced that he had not built the castle for himself, but for the Knights Templar! Unfortunately, there is no evidence that the Order ever took possession of ot, but we raised our flag and 'claimed' it for the day anyway!

The picture is taken in front of a later, Elizabethan-era, ruined mansion. De Courcy's impregnable Norman keep stands above and behind it.

Of course, the main purpose of the whole event was the Knighting Ceremony, which is a private and very personal event which is never filmed or photographed. If you want to see what happens there, there's only one way to do it: Join up and come to next year's Knighting! Deus Vult!