Portrush selected as a 'flagship Twelfth'

PORTRUSH is one of five Twelfth demonstrations selected as flagships for the biggest festival in Northern Ireland.

The flagships will be the standard bearers for the 18 demonstrations being organised by the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland on Monday, July 12.

The other locations are Hillsborough, Cookstown, Newtownstewart and Antrim.

The events in those locations have been judged of a high standard in terms of activities and the ability to engage with visitors and tourists.

The selection process included input from the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and Tourism Ireland.

Grand Lodge will now work closely with the organisers of the flagships to promote the Twelfth.

Official estimates last year calculated that more than 500,000 people either took part in the parades or enjoyed them as spectators.

The Orange Order Director of Services, Dr. David Hume explained: “This is the fifth anniversary of our Twelfth Tourist Flagship programme and we believe that it has been a huge success,”

“Those who apply for flagship status have to undergo a quite rigorous selection process and we believe that it is good for capacity building within the Institution,”

“All of those involved put in a tremendous amount of work and are to be congratulated,” he said.

“The idea behind the Flagship Twelfths is to look at the demonstrations through the eyes of tourists. They will be professionally run events, organised to a high standard. We want to engage directly with tourists and visitors and make them feel welcome.”

Locally there will also be Twelfth demonstrations in Bushmills and Garvagh.