NEWTOWNARDS TOWN HALL

Newtownards town centre is a square ( That is actually round ) that sits directly in front of the town hall. It is the preferred place of congregation to both the local pigeons and the 24 hour wine drinking team, and although drinking in the street is illegal the reluctance of the local constabulary to share their nice clean mondeo’s with the above mentioned means a blind eye is often turned.

The square has recently been enhanced by the addition of a 30 foot metal pole topped by a state of the art CCTV camera. On Saturdays it is home to the town’s busy market.

Standing proud just to the right of the front of the town hall is a statue of Newtownards war hero Blair Mayne . He was capped six times by the Irish Rugby team before the outbreak of World War ll, he won the Irish universities heavyweight boxing championship in 1936 and the Scrabo Golf Clubs Presidents Cup the following year.

His sporting life however was overshadowed by his brilliant military career in which he went from a Newtownards Territorial Army recruit to founder member of the much feared SAS ,the British Army’s ultimate fighting force.

 Full list of decorations

Below is a list of Mayne's military citations:

• · DSO (24 February 1942, Middle East)
• · 1st bar (21 October 1943, Sicily)
• · 2nd bar (29 March 1944, Normandy)
• · 3rd bar (9 April 1945, Germany)
• · Africa Star, 8th Army bar, Italy Star, France & Germany Star, 1939-45 War Medal, Defence Medal, War Medal & Oak Leaf, French Legion d'Honneur, Croix de Guerre & Palm.

Mount Stewart will not generally appeal to the male football following supporters of Norn Iron. It can be used however for obtaining brownie points for those essential away games.

Where is it?          On the coast road to Greyabbey.

What is it?            A big house with a massive garden full of girly flowers.

Who will be there?     Bus loads of foreigners taking loads of photo’s

SCRABO TOWER & COUNTRY PARK

Sitting proudly above the town Scrabo Tower is visible from everywhere. Lazy or old and infirm people can drive up to it for an excellent view of the surrounding area. However if you cannot get a ticket for that all important Norn Iron match and you have young children in tow why not take them for a walk up ulster way and through the country park.

Four miles of steep and uneven terrain should have them well worn out for kick off, and the best bit of all is there is no shop anywhere so they can’t whinge for sweets when they reach the top.

Newtownards is a Norn Iron friendly town. You can watch the National Football team play without having to worry about covering your Norn Iron tap in fear of offending the minority of our countrymen who are still unaware that the border exists.

Generally speaking Molly Browns (The old Whiskey Haw ,left) and Roma’s in Regent Street are the places to go for ‘sumthin til ate’

Go to Le Winters on a Saturday night if you’re looking for love( Or the wife’s away for the weekend)

The Pub, The Huntsman and The Ivy all serve a good pint as well, all in all if you’re after a drink you won’t go thirsty in this wee town.

The area of Castle Street in the town is known locally ‘The Golden Mile’ and ‘The Murder Triangle’ with four good pubs practically beside each other its a great place to start a pub crawl. Go there between 1 & 2 am in the early hours of sunday morning however and you will be tramping on the toes of every drunk teenager in the town who will have by now, emptied the bars and offy’s of all their alco-pops

Local bakery Pattons make the nicest white floury bap’s in the world.(Along with cheesy roll’s iced fingers, soda bread and many more). Leaving Newtownards without tasting something from the Pattons range is like leaving Dublin without trying a pint of Guinness

Long established Chinese restaurant ‘Davy Lee’s’ is so famous there’s even a song about it,,you won’t get anything to eat there though as it closed in 2008!

On the international scale we have Pritchitt Foods supplying the wee milk pots you get on the plane to the away trips and Rich Sauces who supply cartons of sauce all round the world.