On Saturday, August 26 we headed to Aughnacloy for the Last Saturday in August parade. I love parades. This would be the second time I would be attending a Last Saturday in August parade (2011 we were delayed by 3 days because of a hurricane on the east coast of the US, so we went to a parade in Comber).
Before we drove to Aughnacloy I went to my favorite place in Northern Ireland - Cafe Creme - my drink was good, not as good as I remember it, but still good and weirdly it was my only time at Cafe Creme.
The Last Saturday in August parade is the Royal Black Institution, that was originally held on the 12th of August in commemoration of the end of the Siege of Derry, but in the 1950's the event was moved to the Last or Black Saturday in August. In Aughnacloy there were about 80 marching bands, including bagpipes (who doesn't like bagpipes!!) and the really big drums.
We watched the parade come into town and then we went over to the Presbyterian that Ivor's first cousin once removed, Mabel attends. They were having a fundraiser for a new church hall so they had a BBQ and bake goods. After eating our lunch, we found a new spot to watch the parade come back into town.
After the parade Ivor drove us around and explained some of his childhood summer's spent in this area. Including going over to a house in Southern Ireland that has been left to slowly fall apart.
We then went back to Mabel's house where I actually slept in the car for 2 hours - getting old and getting over jet lag was a tad interesting. I can't believe I actually slept in the car - but I did. The McKeown's visited with Mabel and she feed them dinner...all while I slept.
Around 9pm we went over to another one of Ivor's cousins, Robin. Robin and his family have a dairy farm. We spent a couple hours at Robin's house enjoying more tea and backed goods.
As we got on the road at midnight to head back to Newcastle, the McKeown's felt really bad that I hadn't ate dinner. They are way to kind cause I was like - I'm good, I really wasn't that hungry - mostly just tired. But when Ivor missed his exit and we had to go thru Belfast they just happened to know where a 24 hour McDonald's was (the McKeown's love McDonald's). So, I ate some chicken strips and fries while they had ice cream. This was at 1:30am!
We got back to Newcastle around 2:30am and were in bed by 3am. It was a long but really fun day!
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