To mark the centenary of the formation of Northern Ireland, County Fermanagh Grand Orange Lodge hosted a day of festivities in Enniskillen, concluding with a parade through the county town.

The Centennial Festival took place on Saturday, September 11 with a range of activities at the former TP Toppings site in Enniskillen where an open-sided marquee was erected for the occasion.

Although organisers had prepared for all weathers, the sun shone throughout the day.

‘Very successful’

Speaking to The Impartial Reporter, Tom Elliott, one of the organisers of the celebratory event commented that it was a “very successful” day.

“We had a number of displays on. Most of the stuff we were trying to do was related to the early part of the last 100 years, in around the 1921 period and the formation of Northern Ireland.

“We had a lot of displays that were relevant to Northern Ireland and a few organisations that started around that time,” he explained, adding that as well as those static displays, there was a programme of activities which ran throughout the day.

Opening at 12 noon, the festivities began with a performance from musician Robert Pearson.

Cultural displays

This was followed by cultural displays, music, period dress and drama by the Schomberg Association from Kilkeel, a performance from a Silver Band Music group, and Ulster Scots dancing displays by the Erne Highland Dancers.

“Then we had Florencecourt Flute Band and Florence Creighton doing a ‘through the years’ cookery demonstration,” said Tom, outlining the activities.

“We had Joe Graham performing some comedy entertainment and drills and drama from the USC Historical Platoon,” he added.

The programme of activities concluded with a performance by the Regimental Band from East Belfast.

Noting that the events were well supported by Fermanagh locals, Tom was pleased to see visitors to Enniskillen also enjoy the festivities.

“We had quite a lot of visitors. I talked to people from Ballybeen in Belfast, Kilkeel, Coleraine, Londonderry, Ballymena and Castlederg. There were some people from Limerick and a couple from across the water in England,” said Tom.

“There was a big crowd in at the end for the East Belfast Regimental Band, from 5pm on because then the parade was to start shortly after it.

“We were pleasantly surprised by the numbers that came in,” he told this newspaper.

At 7pm, a parade of vintage vehicles, including cars, lorries and tractors took off from Hollyhill car park followed by floats, Orange Order members and around 25 bands. Crowds gathered to enjoy the parade as it completed a circuit of Enniskillen town centre.

“It was a pretty entertaining day. There was a lot packed into it,” commented Tom.