Britannia in Belfast

The Prince of Wales began a three-day visit to Northern Ireland in June, 1996. HRH arrived in Belfast aboard HM Yacht Britannia.

Britannia's captain was Commodore AJC Morrow CVO.

Prince Charles was greeted by the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, the Rt Hon Sir Patrick Mayhew QC MP (now the Lord Mayhew of Twysden PC QC).

I took these pictures of the royal yacht myself, when it was docked at the port of Belfast.

Roseate Excellence

As some poetic cove pronounced, The lark is on the wing, the snail is on the thorn, or words to that effect.

The roses are blooming outside Belmont GHQ. Alas, I am unable to purvey their most fragrant bouquet, though suffice it to say that the scent is divine.

The variety is Etoile de Hollande.

Bernard Diamond VC

SERGEANT BERNARD DIAMOND VC

Bernard Diamond was born at Portglenone, County Antrim, in 1827.

He was approximately 30 years old, and a sergeant in the Bengal Horse Artillery, Bengal Army, during the Indian Mutiny when the following deed took place on the 28th September, 1857, at Bolandshahr, India for which he and Gunner Richard Fitzgerald were awarded the Victoria Cross:

 CITATION

"For an act of valour performed in action against the rebels and mutineers at Boolundshur, on the 28th September, 1857, when these two soldiers evinced the most determined bravery in working their gun under a very heavy fire of musketry, whereby they cleared the road of the enemy, after every other man belonging to it had been either killed or disabled by wounds". (Despatch of Major Turner, Bengal Horse Artillery, dated Boolundshur, 2nd October, 1857).

Sergeant Diamond married a widow in 1854 named Mrs Mary Collins, whose family was from County Down. They emigrated to New Zealand in 1875 and settled eventually at Masterton.

They had three or four children born to them in India.

He died in 1892.

Diamond Service

I attended a service of thanksgiving this afternoon for The Queen on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of Her Majesty's coronation.

Evensong took place at Belfast Cathedral.

The Queen was represented by the Lord-Lieutenant of Belfast, Dame Mary Peters DBE.

The City of Belfast was represented by the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, Aderman Gavin Robinson.

The First Minister of Northern Ireland, the Rt Hon Peter Robinson MLA, attended.

There were nefarious gremlins in the acoustics today and I can recount that it was warmer outside the cathedral (!).

Spence's Mountain

The townland of Glasdrumman, where Spence's River flows gently down to the sea, is close to Annalong, a small fishing village in County Down.

The popular seaside resort of Newcastle is several miles further north. Spence's Mountain itself skirts a section of the famous Mourne Wall.

My [late] uncle and aunt have a lovely cottage in this vicinity, which commands a splendid prospect.

You couldn't really wish for a finer setting: forest, mountains, a lovely river, wildlife. The scenery is spectacular.

There's an old, disused quarry higher up the mountain with its very own natural swimming-pool. I often swam here on fine summer days.

This was the location of a terrible tragedy on Saturday, 1st June, 2013.

My uncle had an admirable organic vegetable garden adjacent to the cottage, where a large variety of fruit and vegetables thrived. Comfrey was mainly used as compost.

I've been visiting this part of the Mourne Mountains for a large part of my life.

There are several pictures of me, as a baby, being held outside my uncle's first cottage at the other side of the river. Surnames such as Newell and Burdon are familiar to me.

Sweet & Sour Sauce

When I was at the Crumlin Road Gaol in Belfast this morning, I purchased a book about life at the prison - which closed its doors in 1996 - by a former prison officer, Patrick Greg.

It's entitled The Crum.

I've already read a chapter and, I can assure you, readers, that it promises to be a fascinating insight of life and times within the Victorian walls of that austere establishment.

Architecturally speaking, the exterior is not austere at all. Rather interesting, in fact, with many fine features carved into the stone-work.

The interior, particularly the inmates' quarters, is a different matter. Austerity reigns in the compact cells, which measure 12' by 7', at times with three prisoners to a cell.

Timothy Belmont pronounces that prison is for punishment and redemption, not comfort!


CHINSESE takeaways are utterly hopeless at sweet & sour sauce nowadays, to my mind at least.

The sauce is not what it used to be, thirty years ago.

It has exasperated me to to such an extent that Belmont GHQ now makes its own sweet & sour sauce, viz.

• Vinegar
• Sugar
• Soy sauce
• Tomato sauce
• Pineapple juice
• Cornflour

Pineapple chunks and raw onion pieces are added. This makes a far superior sauce to the stuff doled out to customers in the 21st century, in my experience at any rate.

The takeaway meal is provided, the supplied sauce is discarded, and the Belmont Household version is substituted.

Voila!

HMP Belfast

I spent two hours at Belfast's old Crumlin Road Gaol this morning, not, I hasten to mention, at Her Majesty's Pleasure.

I parked the two-seater on the road. The old, derelict, Victorian court-house (above), directly opposite the gaol, is in a most pitiful state indeed.

I was on duty at the court-house as a potential juror during the 1990s, though the defendant's legal representative rejected me, possibly (probably) because I was wearing my chalk-stripe, grey, double-breasted suit, brandishing a copy of The Daily Telegraph.

Shame on the authorities and its present owner.

The gaol tour began at ten, sufficient time for me to absorb the surroundings. This old building has been totally restored at great expense.

It is very similar in design to Pentonville prison in London. At the height of the Northern Ireland "Troubles", the gaol contained up to 1,400 inmates.

Hundreds of the vermiculated or reticulated stones and quoins have been replaced by beautifully carved new ones.

The tour commences at the shop inside the main entrance. We are shown the Governor's block (below), including his office and corridor.

There are four wings, viz A, B, C, and D, each of three storeys. We are shown the ground floor of Wing C. Wing D was used to incarcerate high-risk and particularly vulnerable prisoners, like informers or "supergrasses".

We viewed the "condemned man's cell" , more spacious because staff needed to keep watch over him, or her prior to the execution.

The execution chamber is beside this room, with its trap-doors, noose, chambers below with coffin etc.

The condemned prisoner would live in a large cell (large enough for two guards to live in as well), unknowingly living next to the gallows, which were concealed by a moveable bookcase.

The bodies of the executed were buried inside the prison in unconsecrated ground and the graves were marked only with their initials and year of execution on the prison wall.

I am in no doubt that Crumlin Road Gaol will swiftly become an integral part of Belfast's tourist trail.