Ballycarry photographic murals help tell village story

The Ballycarry 100 Project is funded by the Shared History Fund and as part of that, a community fun day was held on Saturday, with entertainment for young and old at the Fairhill in the village.

The photographic murals were officially unveiled by the Mayor of Mid and East Antrim, Councillor William McCaughey, who paid tribute to the work of the Ballycarry and District Community Association.

The mural project was also supported by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and the Fairhill Walls were rendered by the council to enable to the murals to be installed there.

Billy Thompson, chairman of the community group, thanked the funders for the support of the project and also all those who had been involved in staging the fun day.

The Ballycarry murals feature images of Ballycarry General Sir James Steele walking through the village, the late Susie Hay of Drumgart House baking in the kitchen, the Delaney Brothers, who were both killed in the Second World War, Belgian soldiers at Redhall army camp, and a school class from the Ballycarry No.1 National School in the early 1920s. More modern images of the Broadisland Gathering and Ballycarry Primary School also feature, and the project is to be added to over the next few weeks.

Meanwhile a series of heritage lectures is set to start on September 22 at the community centre, when local speaker Mitch Bresland will talk about the history of the Ulster Defence Regiment and there will be an exhibition of memorabilia relating to the UDR provided by Billy Thompson. The talk gets

underway at 7.30pm.

Further talks will be taking place including Dr Donal McAnallan examining Sport and the State in Northern Ireland, 1921-1971 (September 30), Ron Bishop speaking on the Belgian Army in Ulster in 1945 (October 7), and Ann Donnelly detailing the NI Screen archive (October 20).

Further details will appear on the Ballycarry Community facebook page or anyone interested can email the organiser, Dr. David Hume, at [email protected] for further details.

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