In pictures: Traction Engine Club of Ulster make donation to local charities

A cheque for £1,000 was presented to Muriel Barr representing the Northern Ireland Children’s Hospice; money raised from the highly successful inaugural night time tractor run held back in December.

Muriel thanked the club for their generous donation.

The club also showed their appreciation to Ballymena Livestock Mart for the use of their premises, especially the Ringside Cafe, who on top of their already busy schedule, served up around 240 excellent Christmas dinners to participants in the run.

Roberta Moody from the Ringside Cafe was presented with a plaque as a token of the club’s appreciation, as was Emma McCrea from the Ballymena Improvement District, who brought the local and trading community on board.

This year, too, the TECU took over the baton from the now disbanded Antrim Vintage Club and organised the annual New Year’s Day Rally at Dunsilly, also raising money for charity.

Cheques for £200 each were presented to Helen Brogan of PIPS; Raymond Murray of Turning Point, and Roly Mawhinney, representing the Mid Antrim Animal Sanctuary. There were also plaques for Antrim Vintage Club official John Bolton and John Cairns who provided the site venue.

There were plaques, too, for Kemal, duty manager of the Dunsilly Hotel, in recognition of the excellent facilities provided by the McKeever Group for the monthly meetings; Alan Hall, from the local press, for his continued support of the charitable efforts across the wider vintage scene and special guest Charles Friel, BEM, who gave a presentation on the ‘Shane’s Castle Railway’.

Also handed out were copies of the Vintage Events List 2024, produced by the TECU.

The TECU had also handed over £2,500 to the MS Society at their November meeting; the funds raised from their vintage tractor run in June and steam rally in July.

Next up for the TECU, is their St Patrick’s vintage display, to be held at Raceview Mill, Broughshane on Monday 18th March, 11am to 3pm.