Scottish Country Dancing and Orange Lodges as far as the eye can see

To begin one of our last few days in Northern Ireland, we went to the Brownlow House which is an events facility and a working Orange Lodge. At the Brownlow House we met up with George Patton who is a member of the Orange Order and the director of the Armagh Community Development. We also got the chance to meet Carla Lockheart who is one of the few female MLA's, which stands for member of the Local Assembly, in Northern Ireland's government.

Pictured above is our group with Carla Lockheart and other members of the Orange Order. 

After meeting with Carla, we went on a tour of the Brownlow House. The house is what's known as a calendar house. A calendar house is a house that contains architectural elements in quantities that represent numbers of days in a year, weeks in a year, months in a year, and days in a week. For example, Brownlow House has 365 rooms which is the number of how many days are in a year. As mentioned before the house is also an Orange Lodge and has been since after World War II. This caused the house to be targeted during the "Troubles," it was burned badly after an IRA attack in 1996 and now is only partially restored to it's former glory. Fun History Fact: The Brownlow House also acted as Dwight Eisenhower's headquarters for the European theatre in World War II. He even planned the Normandy Invasion in the house. 

Pictured abound is our group on the Grand Staircase at the Brownlow House. Not So Fun History Fact: The stained glass window behind us is a replica. The American GI's that were stationed here during World War II took the glass as a souvenir before leaving.

Once we left the Brownlow House, we traveled onto Dan Winters' Cottage which is where the Battle of the Diamond took place during the 1700's. It's also known as the place when orangeism was born. We were also fed a wonderful lunch by Hilda Winters. She also shared with us the story of her family, what transpired at the Battle of the Diamond, and how they transformed the cottage into museum. 

Pictured above is our group with Hilda Winters in front of the Dan Winter's Cottage.

After the cottage, we went to the Sloan House which is a museum about the Orange Order. It's even believed that the Orange Order was created in the house. We also engaged in a Q&A with members from the Orange Order. 

We then visited a Lambeg Drum Maker, David Alexander, who hand-makes Lambeg Drums. Check them out below. There are very few Lambeg Drum makers in Northern Ireland, so it was quite a treat getting to meet Mr. Alexander! By the time we left, we all thought Maryville College should get one of these for the pep band!

Pictured above is Natasha trying out one of the Lambeg Drums. 

After our visit to the drum marker we headed over to George Patton's local Orange Lodge where we were served a lovely dinner by the Aughlish Ulster-Scots Group. After dinner we were taught some traditional Scottish folk dances! I'll upload a video later so keep an eye out!