"Colourful Leadership"
Talking Heads feature, Londonderry Sentinel, 14 January 2009
Installed as WM of Newbuildings Victoria LOL 1087 in 2006, Kenny Kincaid
steps down from his post on Friday. He has had a busy and ground-breaking
term of office, including heading up an historic parade in the village
in July in 2008 which saw the Loyal Orders march together for the first
time to commemorate the Battle of the Somme.
You were one of the founder members of Newbuildings Victoria LOL1087,
who were the other founders?
There was John Keys, who was the brains behind it at the start. I had
known him for a lifetime because I had worked with him from the age of
11 and he and my father were friends and I was a member of another Lodge,
Curryfree True Blues, between Newbuildings and Donemana up in the hills.
Is that where you grew up?
No, I'm originally from Newbuildings. I joined the Apprentice Boys when
I was 12 or 13 and because of the boys I knew in the Apprentice Boys I
joined the Orange.
Was it family connections that you joined?
Well, my granda was in the Apprentice Boys and he got me into it and I
got involved from them. I knew a few of the boys in Curryfree.
You must have been delighted last year to have got to parade in the city
centre. That was some parade.
It was great. We could have marched all day. It is only one day a year,
and last year was the first year that I paraded. This year I'm the Deputy
President in the Apprentice Boys and last year was the first year I walked
the Walls because whatever way it worked I was always working and never
got to the morning parade, so last year was the first year I got to walk
the Walls in the morning, and that was unbelievable. It was very good.
A lot of work and effort went into it. Even going round the Walls there
was no animosity and it was good to see it.
So you joined the Apprentice Boys, and how did you end up becoming a
founder member of Newbuildings Victoria?
I was in Curryfree and John Keys happened to ring me and said he was thinking
about starting a Lodge in Newbuildings and I said 'No problem'. He asked
me if he did Master would I do the Deputy Master and I said I would. A
lot of Lodges don't like to see their members leave and want to keep their
own, but they understood we were starting a new Lodge and we would bring
other new members into the Lodge so there was no problem.
It is a young Lodge.
We are coming into our sixth year. So there was John and myself and there
was Colin Campbell, and John Burton and Maurice Devenney the councillor
- in all there was seven of us because you need seven members to form
a Lodge and on January 31, 2003 we had our Warrant sent down from Belfast
from the Grand Orange Lodge. It was Alan Lindsay, the City Grand Master
who presented us with our Warrant in the Black Room at the Apprentice
Boys Hall. We belong to No.1 District and a lot of the people we were
thinking of bringing in to the Lodge were members of Lodges in the town
and were keen to get involved again. Victoria was a cityside Lodge and
that's how we are still affiliated to the Memorial Hall.
In 2006 you were elected as Worshipful Master.
Yes, it is a lot of work and takes up a lot of your time, you are obliged
to attend City Grand Lodge meetings, held four times a year, you have
your own Lodge meetings, you have the Battle of the Somme to organise,
church services to organise, the Twelfth of July to organise and you have
to attend all your church services, and you show support for other Lodges
too.
It's all based on the principle of Christianity, isn't it?
It is. We base ourselves on a Christian organisation and we try to live
up to that as best we can.
During your term in office the Lodge moved its operations from the Memorial
Hall to the Church of Ireland Centre in Newbuildings. Was that a lot of
work for you?
It was but we make sure that we always have links to the Mem Hall, and
try to have at least one, maybe two meetings a year in the Memorial Hall.
But again, because we are called Newbuildings Victoria we would move out
to Newbuildings and have it in Newbuildings and in the community and we
thought we would have a better chance of picking up new members from within
the community.
Have you found that being in the community hall in Newbuildings, it has
given you a better sense of community?
Definitely, it has. Even with the community centre , because members of
the Lodge are also involved in the community centre and they would come
and ask us if they have something going on if we could be affiliated to
it, and it is the same with the church who would send us out a letter
if they were hosting a bowls tournament or something like that, asking
if there is anyone from the Lodge willing to take part and things like
that.
Does the lodge have its own band?
Newbuildings Auld Boys Band. They formed last year. There used to be only
one band and we were connected to the Churchill Band. When we started
in 2003 we had no band, so the Churchill Band, while affiliated to the
District, it was also affiliated to the Lodges.
In July 2007 you were WM when the Lodge went to the pageant celebrating
the landing of King William in Carrickfergus representing the City of
Londonderry Grand Orange Lodge, what was that Like?
Brilliant. It was hard to tell how many thousands of people were there.
We went with our full regalia, or banners and flags and we took Newbuildings
band with us. We paraded, and there were just Orangemen everywhere, but
because we weren't local we hadn't a clue where we were going. There were
that many people we could hardly see the pageant until we went down onto
the beach. I remember that Saturday was the last Saturday the weather
was good that month, and we had a great day. King William came into the
harbour on a boat and then got on his horse and there were horses and
carriages and there was a massive fairground. There were hundreds of folk.
A year later the Lodge made history when the Orange, Royal Arch Purple,
Royal Black and ABOD marched together in the Battle of the Somme Parade
in Newbuildings. How much work went into that?
Colin Campbell did it all! Everyone was very keen to see it succeed as
all four organisations have connections with the Battle of the Somme.
I thought it would be nice if we could get all the organisations involved,
and I wanted it to be opened to everyone. It was only open to officers
last year, just to get it started, but it will be an annual event, hopefully,
if everyone is agreeable. I can't see any problem with that because the
Governor of the Apprentice Boys was there and he was absolutely delighted
and said it should have happened years ago.
In addition to everything else you are a member of Killaloo Select Parish
Vestry, how does that fit in?
Very easily for we are very laid back! The church is very important and
from the time the children were born I made it the rule they would always
go to Sunday School and to Church and if nothing else they would be brought
up within the church. It is a very small country parish church and everybody
gets on. I'm the Glebe Warden who is in charge of the grounds and land,
the graveyard and such like.
You are also a huge Institute fan and Northern Ireland fan, and a doting
dad.
Yes I am. And the wee boy, Kaelen, is football mad and goes to all the
Institute matches. I also have twin girls, Brooke and Dayle, and Sam,
he's the 'baby' and started school last week, and of course none of what
I do would be possible if it wasn't for my wife, Leona.