Details confirmed for Shutting of the Gates and burning of Lundy in Derry city centre

Around 2,500 direct participants and 25 bands are expected to take part in the annual events this Saturday, December 6.

The ceremonies commemorate the actions of 13 young apprentices in December 1688 when they closed the gates of Derry to arriving Catholic Redshanks soldiers sent to garrison the city ahead of the Siege of Derry.

The PSNI have advised that the "city centre is open and motorists driving through the city-side and Waterside areas, between 11.30am and 5.30pm, are advised to take extra care and of delays during parade times”.

A PSNI spokesperson said: “Signage advising of diversions/closures will be in place and officers will be on patrol.

"Police work in partnership with the parade organisers and marshals to ensure minimum disruption to those going about their daily routine.”

The commemorations will start with the symbolic firing of a cannon on the city’s historic walls at midnight. Thirteen members of a Parent Club will then make their way to each of the four original City gates, as the 13 apprentices did in 1688, for the traditional ‘Touching of the Gates’.

The day’s proceedings will commence at 10am on Saturday when the General Committee officially open their meeting.

At 11.30am the visiting clubs will leave the Waterside, having gathered at the Waterside Train station from 11am. The route will take the clubs and bands from Duke Street across the top deck of Craigavon Bridge and then onto Carlisle Road, Hawkin Street, London Street, Bishop Street and Palace Lane to the Memorial Hall.

The parade to the Cathedral will take place at 1.15pm, leaving Society Street and headed by officers of General Committee. The parade will go via Bishop Street, The Diamond (clockwise) Ferryquay Street, Carlisle Road, Wapping Lane, Kennedy Street, Hawkin Street, London Street, and finishing in the grounds of St. Columb’s Cathedral. This is estimated to take approximately 40 minutes.

The Service of Thanksgiving in St. Columb’s Cathedral takes place at 2pm. At the conclusion of the service a wreath will be laid by the officers of the host Parent Club and at the Siege Heroes Mound in the cathedral grounds.

The parade leaves the Cathedral at 3pm and will re-form on Bishop Street at 3.15pm and parade via the earlier route in reverse. The parade will conclude in Bishop Street at the effigy of Lundy.

The burning of Lundy will take place at 4pm with the effigy to be lit by a member or members of the host Apprentice Boys Club.

Visiting clubs will return to Waterside at 4.30pm via Bishop Street, Hawkin Street, Carlisle Road, the top deck of Craigavon Bridge, Duke Street, finishing at the Waterside Railway Station for dispersal at Waterside Link at 5.15pm approximately. The top deck of Craigavon Bridge (Waterside-bound) and Duke Street will be closed for a short time as the parade is underway.

Bands registered to take part this year include: Burntollet Sons of Ulster Flute Band, Cormeen Rising Sons of William Flute Band,Churchill Flute Band, Ballymena Young Defenders Flute Band, Castlederg Young Loyalist FB, Pride of William Donemana Auld Boys, Somme Memorial FB,William King Memorial Flute Band, Eden Defenders Flute Band, Pride of the Derg, South Belfast Protestant Boys Flute Band, Dungiven Crown Defenders Flute Band, Auld Orange Flute Band, Pride of the Orange and Blue Flute Band, Glendermott Valley Flute Band, Fairhill Flute Band, East Bank Protestant Boys FB, Pride of the Bann Flute Band, Young Loyalist Volunteers Auld Boys, Millar Memorial Flute Band, Stonepark Flute Band,Sons of Ulster Old Boys Flute Band, Ardbarron Accordian Band, Newtownstewart Red Hand Defenders Flute Band and Whiterock Flute Band.

The Shutting of the Gates events take place on the first Saturday of December every year to mark the actions of the 13 original apprentices who shut the gates of Derry in the face of King James II of England's men.

The events include the burning of the effigy of the former governor of Derry, Colonel Robert Lundy, known to history within Ulster Loyalism as ‘Lundy the traitor’, due to what has been perceived as his willingness to surrender the city to Jacobite forces at the time of the siege of Derry.

The Catholic King James II’ Jacobite troops would arrive in Derry in 1689 and for 105 days of the Siege from April that year up to 30,000 Protestant people were held within the walled city refusing to open the gates. This went on until a relief fleet broke through the wooden boom placed across the River Foyle on July 28. The Jacobite forces subsequently retreated from the city at the start of August that year.