Tuesday 11 May 2010

ORANGE ORDER AT BALMORAL SHOW


The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland will have a promotional stand at the Royal Ulster Agricultural Show, for the third year in a row.

The stand will be in the King’s Hall and has been organised by staff from Orange Order headquarters and senior officers of the institution.

The Grand Master of the Orange Order, Robert Saulters said:
“The response to the stand in the past two years has been tremendous. People were delighted to see us and were keen to talk about the various items we had on show and look at our display.
“Thousands of people visit the show each year, many of them Orangemen and their families, and it gives us a chance to catch up with old friends and to make new ones.”
This year one of the displays on the stand will feature the Byerley Turk, the ancestor of thoroughbred bloodstock horses.
Born around 1684, the Byerley Turk is believed to have been captured from a Turkish officer by Captain Robert Byerley of the Sixth Dragoon Guards at the Seige of Buda in Hungary in 1686.
The horse saw service with Captain Byerley in King William’s Army at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
Earlier in 1690, a race meeting was held at Down Royal at which the top prize, was won by Captain Byerley’s charger.
The Byerley Turk died in 1706 at the age of 27 but his line continued throughout the bloodstock of the British Isles.

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