The Somme offensive in 1916 was one of the biggest and bloodiest battles of the First World War. With well over one million casualties and 300,000 fatalities, the five-month battle finally came to an …
Glarryford Barefoot Thief Caught Red Handed
Glarryford is some seven miles north of Ballymena. It was known to me (when I was growing up, in the 1970s and early 80s) for two things - the famous Glarryford Young Farmers, and the great church …
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1926 – An Awkward Invitation
Here's a wonderful old poem, written in early 1926, by a woman from the Ballymena area. It should be noted that the local newspapers of the late 1800s and early 1900s often invited their readers to …
Old Ballymena Photograph and 1851 Poem
As many of you know, I take great pleasure in cleaning up and enhancing old photographs, using photoshop and other software. The following photograph of old Ballymena is most likely from around the …
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Ballymena farmers enjoying tea break in hay field
I put 'Ballymena' in the title, because google is probably fed up seeing 'Portglenone' in so many of my titles! Ballymena would be the nearest large regional town, about 13 miles away. Magherafelt is …
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The Ploughing Match at Ballymena
During the second half of the 1800s, ploughing matches became a common event in the North of Ireland. In a search of old newspapers, reports of annual ploughing matches appear frequently across the …