Demonstration of Church Bell Change Ringing in St. Peters COI Belltower Drogheda

A Brief talk on Bell Ringing as practised by Change Ringers.This involves diagrams & permutations, nothing too complicated.Like all skills bell ringing has its own language e.g. Look to, Trebles' Ready, tail end, sally, hand stroke, back stroke, hunting & dodging. Ringers are of all ages, persuasions, & walks of life.

There will be a short introductory talk, followed by a demonstration of bellringing on 6 or 8 bells, by a band of experienced ringers. Following on from the demonstration, attendees may if they wish, experience ringing a bell themselves under close supervision.

St. Peters Guild of Bellringers is affiliated with The Irish Association of Change Ringers (bellringingireland.org), an all Ireland non denominational body. There are 37 Bell towers in Ireland, with bells hung for full circle ringing.

IACR has three districts Northern 17 Towers, Eastern 10 towers, & Southern 10 Towers. IACR facilitates competitions between different teams of bell ringers to encourage improvement in the standard of striking. IACR is affilliated to the global body "The Central Council of Church Bell Ringers" with members in UK, Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, USA.

Church bell ringers are welcomed to ring in other towers "nationally & worldwide."

A worldwide list of all Bell Towers suited to change ringing can be found in Doves Guide to Bells (dove.cccbr.org.uk).As already mentioned there are several ringing festivals & competitions held regularly in Ireland. The all Ireland Trophy for Bell ringing is "The Murphy Cup", which is competed for annually in a different Bell Towers each year. St. Peters Drogheda hosts its own competition for "The Boyne Cup" held annually on the first weekend in February.