D-Day 80th anniversary: poignant tributes planned across NI with beacons to light night sky on Thursday

Beacons will be lit right across Northern Ireland on Thursday evening as part of the UK-wide commemorations to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

Ahead of the coordinated 9.15pm beacon lighting, a full programme of events is taking place, with many towns and villages marking their own area’s contribution to the unprecedented invasion of Europe that changed the course of the Second World War.

In Co Antrim, General Sir James Stuart Steele will be remembered as a key military strategist who helped plan the Normandy invasion, and signed the Mobilization Order which took the nation to war in 1939.

Born in Ballycarry, General Steele was honoured with a plaque in his home village (pictured) that was erected in Main Street.

On Thursday (June 6), the local community group and primary school will be participating in a special event on the amenity green at 9.30am, which is open to the public.

Also in the Mid and East Antrim council area, at 6.45pm there will be a civic service and wreath-laying at Larne War Memorial Gardens – highlighting the role Larne and her seafarers played in the D-Day landings.

At The Braid in Ballymena (7.30pm), there will be a special concert with music from the Kellswater Flute Band, the Swing Gals and piper Lee Hanna.

In Larne’s McNeill Theatre (7.45pm), Magheramorne Silver Band, Zolene and the ALS Band, along with piper Trevor Hassin, will all perform before a Royal British Legion procession to Chaine Memorial Road for the beacon lighting at 9.15pm.

Beacons will also be lit in Larne (War Memorial Gardens), and at the war memorial in Carrick following a concert – with Third Carrick Old Boys Silver Band, singer Lisa Dawson and piper John Fittis – at the town hall (8pm).

Ards and North Down will also beacon lighting events in Bangor, Newtownards and Ballyhalbert.

Beacons will also be lit at Antrim Castle Gardens and Mossley Mill, in Lisburn at Castle Gardens, at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh, St Macartin’s Cathedral in Enniskillen, the East Strand in Portrush and many other locations.