David Gilmore (1st Kilrea Company) recently participated in a ‘Youth Exchange’ project, which included a tall ship voyage, organised by Sail Training Ireland. The week began with a weekend spent in the Mourne Mountains, mainly just to get to know one another. This was good, as it meant we already knew each other before setting sail. On Monday afternoon, we boarded the Gulden Leeuw (Golden Lion), and set sail in the evening. The group, 44 in total, were split into watches of 11. Each watch was on for four hours, and was responsible for navigation and steering, along with setting the sails for the duration of their watch, under the supervision of a crew member. When not on watch, time was spent cleaning, cooking, sleeping, socialising and learning about the different sails and practising various knots. Not one for sitting around for too long, I got stuck into it outside of my watch hours, helping out around the ship with sails (they’re very heavy, it can take up to 20 people to ra
The University of Ulster Jordanstown was the venue for the 2013 Boys’ Brigade National Badminton Finals hosted by the Northern Ireland District. David, Michael, Paul and Jamie of 1 st Garvagh with NI District President Professor Norman C. Nevin OBE Those earning the right to contest for the title of BB National Champions were 1 st Barnet and 4 th Hartlepool from England, 16 th Newtownabbey and 1 st Garvagh from Northern Ireland with 1 st Largs and 65 th Edinburgh representing Scotland. These 4 man teams, playing 6 boys’ doubles games in each match, were drawn into two mini leagues playing round robin matches to establish the 4 teams that would go through to the semi-finals. This was the 3 rd British Championship in a row that the 1st Garvagh Boys had contested, losing out in last year’s final to 1 st Largs in a play-off after an initial 3-3 draw. The team of Paul Moore, David Moore, Michael Torrens and Jamie Cunningham were determined to go one step further this