Centenary benches requested at war memorials

A Northern Ireland Centenary Committee has asked for a bench to be placed in Ballymena War Memorial Park.

Carrickfergus Defenders’ Flute Band has requested a bench for Marine Gardens adjacent to the town’s war memorial and Killyglen Cultural Group has asked for a bench at the War Memorial Gardens in Larne.

All groups are to purchase the benches themselves and would be required to maintain them during the next 10 years and remove them if they become damaged.

Mid and East Antrim Council has already agreed to mark the NI Centenary with commemorative stones to be placed in the borough’s three main towns and a paving stone in each of the villages.

Councillor Timothy Gaston, who made the proposal, described it as a “fabulous way of visibly marking the milestone across the borough”.

Cllr Cheryl Brownlee said that providing commemorative stones throughout the borough would be a “positive and lasting legacy”.

Cllr Danny Donnelly commented that “not everybody in Northern Ireland or Mid and East Antrim will see the centenary as something worth celebrating but clearly some will”. He acknowledged that 100 years is “a significant period of time and worthy of marking”.

A new sports pavilion at Tower Road in Larne has been named Sandy Bay Centenary Pavilion and Ald. Robin Cherry, seconded by MEA Mayor Cllr William McCaughey has proposed the new sport pavilion in Kells be named the Kells and Connor Centenary Sports Pavilion.