THE wet weather did not dampen spirits as crowds lined the streets of Kesh for this year’s Fermanagh Royal Black commemoration held last Saturday afternoon (August 7).

Approximately 30 bands and preceptories took part in the only official Twelfth of August parade to take place in Northern Ireland on that day.

Tom Elliott, County Grandmaster of the Fermanagh Royal Black Institution, was happy to be back parading following the absence of a parade last year due to coronavirus regulations.

“It was good to be back. There was a reasonable crowd for the bad day,” he said. However, he explained that this year’s parade was “scaled back from other years” due to the pandemic.

“It was much shorter [than usual]; we had a religious service before the parade itself, so that shortened the day and shortened the contact,” said the County Grandmaster.

The commemoration began with a service led by Sir Knight Reverend Rodney Beacom in a field at Mantlin Road, Kesh at noon and a short address was given by Sovereign Grandmaster Reverend William Anderson. The service was immediately followed by a single parade of the village.

Although this year’s event was scaled back, a number of visitors were still in attendance, including bands and preceptories from the Republic of Ireland, including Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan.

“We still had a number of visitors but, again, that was scaled down, whereby the Ballymena preceptory would have always have sent a full bus load, they just had a few cars full of people [present this time], so it was well scaled back in that sense, and shorter walks,” explained the County Grandmaster, adding: “We had a number from Donegal, we had a small number from Monaghan and Cavan as well.

“Again, not as many as we would normally have, but we were pleased to have them.”

The County Grandmaster went on to note how the pandemic is still very much to the fore and some people are wary of large events.

He said: “It does give you a sense of the difficult situation we are in whereby a lot of people are really keen to get out and get to those social events again, but we’re very concious as well that there were a number [of people] that just didn’t feel comfortable about coming out, and didn’t.

“There were people who contacted me and said, ‘We appreciate that you are trying to move things forward and try and bring back a bit of normality, but we just don’t feel comfortable yet going out to such an event’, and that’s fine, that’s entirely their right and choice, and I accept that,” he told this newspaper.