Hauld yer horses - the Battle of the Boyne Visitor Centre? Times have certainly changed!
In 1997 I worked as a researcher on a documentary about the Battle of the Boyne for the BBC series War Walks, presented by Richard Holmes. At that point, I think the idea of a Boyne visitor centre would have raised many an eyebrow - instead, a small production crew of just six of us had to research the area like confused Jacobites! There was also only one Jacobite re-enactment society at the time, the Sligo Living History Society, so in classic BBC tradition we got them to play both sides of the conflict for the re-enactment. It was a great week's filming, with the late great Richard teaching me how to fire a matchlock musket, a skill I had hoped to take back to Ashby-de-la-Zouche in order to perform revenge against a scoundrel in the Sealed Knot who accidentally shot me with his musket at a civil war re-enactment for the previous programme! (Typical - I lived in Northern Ireland for years, never saw anyone say boo to a goose, then went to England and got shot by an eejit in costume...).
I had no idea the Boyne battlefield was now a big tourist attraction - I'll need to take my boys over to have a look, it's a beautiful part of the country!
Here's the great man himself pretending to be King Billy on his trusty steed...
The guv'nor beside the Boyne
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The good folk of Sligo
Chris
British GENES on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BritishGENES and Twitter @chrismpaton
Scotland's Greatest Story research service www.ScotlandsGreatestStory.co.uk and www.facebook.com/ScottishGenealogyResearch
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