Parks and Town Halls Across NI to Show Queen’s Funeral

By Gráinne Ní Aodha and Jonathan McCambridge (PA)

Parks and civic buildings across Northern Ireland are to air live feeds of the Queen’s funeral.

Large screens are being brought in to broadcast the funeral procession and service at Westminster Abbey, expected to start at 11am.

Belfast City Hall and other venues across Northern Ireland are setting up big screens so people can gather to watch the state funeral together.

Coleraine Town Hall will be airing proceedings from 8am, while the People’s Park in Ballymena and Shaftesbury Park in Carrickfergus are streaming the feed from 9.30am.

Hundreds of foreign dignitaries and charity representatives will be among those who join the royal family in the abbey for the service.

Peter Sheridan of Co-operation Ireland, which is among the charities the late Queen was a patron of, said he was honoured to attend the funeral and reflected on the Queen’s “gestures of healing”.

On Sunday night at 8pm, a minute’s silence was held at locations across Northern Ireland to mourn the death of the Queen and reflect on her life and legacy.

People across the UK were invited to mark the occasion at their homes or as part of community events.

At Hillsborough Castle, the royal residence in Northern Ireland, a gong was sounded as the minute’s silence began, which prompted the crowd gathered at the castle gates to bow their heads.

Robin Campbell, from Royal Hillsborough, said he came to the castle on Sunday night “to join with the rest of the nation in the minute’s silence for Her Majesty the Queen, to remember her”.

He said he would watch the funeral with his family.

“The plan is to spend it with my family, my mother and father, my partner and our children. It’s a family occasion.

“It’s such an historic event, sad but also celebratory in that she’s also left a great legacy for us all to follow.”

In Belfast, people gathered at West Belfast Orange Hall’s memorial garden ahead of the minute’s silence.

William Humphrey, chairman of the hall committee and a former member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, told those who gathered that the Queen was respected “not just as our monarch, but as an international stateswoman”.

“I think it’s fair to say that for all of us, and that’s right across the country, the Queen’s passing was like someone in our own family passing, and I think that pays tribute to how she was loved across every household in the kingdom.”

The funeral comes almost a week after the King made his first visit to Northern Ireland as the UK’s new head of state.

Charles met politicians at Hillsborough Castle before he and the Queen Consort attended a memorial service in the Queen’s honour at St Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast.

Charles and Camilla also greeted some members of the public who had gathered to catch a glimpse of the new monarch, and to convey their condolences at the loss of his mother.

Members of the public visit a mural to Queen Elizabeth II on the Shankill Road in Belfast ahead of the national minute's silence in memory of Queen Elizabeth II (Picture Taken Sunday September 18, 2022).