Our History

South Fermanagh Loyalists Flute Band was born in Maguiresbridge, Northern Ireland in 1983. The band was originally known as the Sons of William Flute Band and were based in the these premises you see on the left, today this building houses the Small Fry Community Playgroup but in our day it was the old Church Hall.
In 1987 the band joined ranks with the Wilson Memorial Flute Band and became known as the Red Hand Defenders Flute Band.
We done our first parade in Brookeburgh and on that particularly night never before had a band as big, been ever seen in County Fermanagh.

In 1993 the band moved from what was the church hall out here to Carrybridge to this building on your left, which was a disused B Man’s Hall. I’m sure these premises were for the local Gun Club and many’s a cold night we spent out here in the early hours practicing.

Towards the end of the 90’s, the band had hit on hard times. Membership was extremely low, and those that stayed with the band became very downhearted. We had another blow still to come, we found out that the Gun Club purchased these premises and once again we had to move.

The band then relocated to Enniskillen to the site of the Apprentice Boys Hall. Around this time major changes took place in the band, first of all being dropped the Red Hand Defenders from our title and became known as the South Fermanagh Loyalists Flute Band which we’re still known as today.

From the year 2000, through hard work and determination the band has gone from strength to strength and our reputation is second to none. Membership at present is touching forty and we are continually striving on moving the band onwards and upwards.

We attend all the major demonstrations across the province with the Orange, RBP and the ABOD, such as the Relief of Derry, 12th of July Celebrations, Easter Monday, Somme Memorial etc.

As well as participating at individual band parades, we also perform at indoor events such as band competitions and concerts.

We as a Band are extremely proud of our background and we will always maintain to keep a positive attitude within our ranks and to help promote our culture and tradition in a positive manner.

Standards we carry

We march in proud and loving memory of the 36th Ulster Division, the 11th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers (Donegal & Fermanagh Volunteers), the 14th Battalion. Royal Irish Rifles (Young Citizen Volunteers) .

Not only do we carry a memorial bannerette dedicated to the memory of the 36th Ulster Division and 11th Battalion, but we also carry the Donegal Ulster Volunteer Force Regimental Colours, Kings Colours Ulster Volunteer Force and the Standard of the Royal Irish Rifles Young Citizens Volunteers in recognition of the sacrifice that was paid by the Donegals and Fermanagh Volunteers.


We are also the first band in Northern Ireland to carry an original copy of the Young Citizens Volunteers that hangs in St. Annes Cathedral in Belfast.

We  are very proud to have these flags and when out on parade we carry them with dignity, pride and honour to remember the young men who fought for this country to which they paid the supreme sacrifice, ….. for that we will never forget.

Uniforms

What you see in these pictures  are the  end result of  years of hard work and determination by the leadership of the band to put in place the funding needed to purchase this uniform.  10 years ago the band wouldn’t have this mechanism in place but we’re fortunate enough to have a support base and the mechanism there to raise funds to fund a project such as getting new uniforms.

A lot of hard work was spent in researching the uniform, it had to meet certain criterial, it had to be as an original uniform as our last uniforms were.  It had to be a uniform that either still existed today or existed sometime in history and most importantly it also had to be different.

One of our senior members was searching the web one day and found a photograph on the web of a regiment dating back we think to the late 1800’s and on describing that uniform to the band it sounded like something we were looking for.  We had bounced about a lot of idea’s between members but we just couldn’t come up with something we were happy with. So on trying to find this photograph again, we just couldn’t do it .. it had disappeared,  we had to go elsewhere to find clarification on what we had found.

Raymond Haskins from TnkModels.com speaks;

“I was very happy to help Keith and the band to try and locate who these uniforms belong to. When Keith approached me about the uniforms that they would like to use for the band I more or less knew straight away according to the description they gave me the only unit it could have been was the Natal Mounted Police. The Natal Mounted Police were originally formed in South Africa in the middle of the 19th century and they were a military police unit which patrol the borders of South Africa and Natal. There basic duties were to protect the borders from occursions from Zulu’s into the British Govern in South Africa. A small force of these troops were sent to Khartoum in around about 1888 as part of the Gordon Expedition. They were in Khartoum and most of them were all killed there.

The basic force was around about a hundred men, the unit itself went on and again was used in several wars in mostly South Africa and right up to the time of the Boer War. The officers uniform as it stand’s is very similar to that is being used in the band. The officers had a tendency to buy their own uniform so intended to elaborate quite a lot on them. So therefore you would get a lot of young officers with these gold trousers for instance and they would have reversed the braiding on them which would make them quite flashy and no officer with a bit of money wouldn’t have wanted to look his best.

The army had a bad war itself in the Battle of Mahlabathini in 1901 that was fought in a large plain outside the small city of that bordered on the Nile. This is the very last cavalry charge in the 20th Century which Sir Winston Churchill took part in. The battle went on for 5 hours or so, in an Anglo Egyptian vectory and that was the last the natal forces ever rosed again which resulted in a more free peaceful Egypt for the rest of that century up until modern times.

The band uniform as it stand’s now is very close to what the Natal Mounted Officers would have worn around about the turn of the 19th Century and the 20th Century. Very very flashy very nice uniform very well cut. Most of the other ranks would have worn a fairly darker, plainer uniform but the band has chosen to go for the officers uniform as it looks more striking and stands out a lot better. The uniform really that the band is using now hasn’t changed much really since then, it’s a copy of the uniform that was in existence in the late 19th Century and is now been gladly brought back to life by the band and looks very nice”

The Natal Mounted Police were founded in 1874 by a retired British Army Officer Major (later Major-General Sir) John Dartnell as a paramilitary force and the first line of defence in the Colony of Natal. The Natal Police have a fighting record second to that of no similar body of men in the world, and on two occasions they have had the distinguished honour of covering the retreat of British troops. The Natal Mounted Police were renamed the Natal Police in 1894 when all Police Forces and Jails in Natal Colony were amalgamated into one Force the Natal Police under Dartnells command.

The first was during the retirement of Lord Chelmsford’s force from Isandhlwana to Rorke’s Drift, on the 23rd January 1879. And the second was after the disaster at Laing’s Nek in the Boer War of 1881 , when the column under General Colley retired to Mount Prospect on the 28th January. The corps has had its ups and downs, but it is to-day the best organized police force in South Africa.

We obviously have modernized this uniform from what it was originally. The tunic’s are longer in length than what would have been worn in those days. The trousers are obviously a different style more modern, we have also chosen a peak hat where as the Natal Mounted Officers would have worn a hat in the Russian bizarre style. where else we have taking the colours directly and put them into the uniform, we have added the shells on the shoulders and we have added different styles of braiding both to the back of the uniform,the sleeves, front of tunic and the trousers.

The band is extremely proud of not only having a uniform that has got a long established history behind it but we also have a uniform that is unique to us.

Video

The clip below shows the band in different uniforms at numerous parades through out the past years.