RBP Dromore

This Black Saturday saw us for the third year in a row with the Dromara Black in Dromore.

The day started early for us, band bus called for 7:45am and left Kilkeel at about 8:10am as we were heading to Dromara to do a short parade around the town with the lodge behind us.

The Dromara Black lodge treated us extremely well throughout the whole day, with their comments about the band, their immaculate turnout on parade and for the very tasty food that followed that night after we had finished up. So a big thanks and well done to the lodge and we hope to see you again next year.

The band today had a good turnout, 6 girls in the Colour Party, Craig on the Mace, 7 Drummers, Cutter and Duff on Bass, and Joel on the Cymbals again.

The day itself is a very enjoyable day, and also very relaxing compared to any of the other major parades throughout the year.

As we arrived in Dromore, we then had to parade upto the main Assembly Field to wait on the rest of the precession to arrive and form up.

We got to see quite a lot of the parade at the start point. Clogher, Downshire, Kilcluney, Drumderg and the Red Hand Defenders Downpatrick all going well, as were Newtownards Melody, Ballyhalbert, Banbridge Silver and the leaders of the parade Tempo Silver who sounded top notch coming into the field and marching out aswell.

Thought to band was playing well today, quite a few senior members walking with their lodges so was left upto the younger members to carry the band for a change, and they didn’t disappoint. Yee Haa and Apprentice Boys going down well with the crowd aswell as Hub of the North and the Good Companion.

As we paraded through Dromore I expected to see a bigger crowd of spectators but I was left disappointed. Don’t know what the problem was, but apart from the square in the town, the rest of the route was relatively poor in my opinion.

But still a good day out, with a good lodge and the weather held up to which was another big bonus.

Well done to all involved in making the day enjoyable and hopefully be back next year.