Captain Tom and Noah’s Ark painted on Lambeg drum after public vote

A Lambeg drum has been painted with an image of Captain Tom and Noah’s Ark to send out a positive message about the year 2020 for many decades to come.
Keith Currie with his Lambeg drum bearing the design which won the competitionKeith Currie with his Lambeg drum bearing the design which won the competition
Keith Currie with his Lambeg drum bearing the design which won the competition

The design by Portadown man Keith Currie was chosen by public vote in a competition run by Lambeg painter Andy Young, who is from Richill.

Andy, who ran the competition on his Facebook page, said: “It’s just something I thought might be nice in these times, something that people could look back on in 10, 20, 30 years when they see the drum. They’ll say, ‘do you remember 2020 – that was some year’.

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“It’s a bit like the tercentenary of Orange Order in 1990. There was a new symbol came out for that and a lot of the drums have that on them, and when you see the symbol it takes you back to 1990.

The winning design features Captain Tom, Noah and the returning doveThe winning design features Captain Tom, Noah and the returning dove
The winning design features Captain Tom, Noah and the returning dove

“At the end of the day the painting on the drum had to be something you could bring out, something that was symbolic of what is going on.”

As a prize Andy offered to paint the winning design in the competition onto a Lambeg drum for that person.

“At the end of the day there’s a lot of drumming men who are good to me, it’s not too hard to give something back,” said the 46-year-old drum painter.

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One of the ideas included Florence Nightingale while another had the backdrop of the coronavirus spur.

In the end Keith’s design which featured Captain Tom along with Noah and the returning dove was the winner of the public vote.

Keith, a 42-year-old Lambeg drummer from the Birches area of Portadown, explained his idea as combining both the Biblical and the contemporary: “I chose two elements that I believed truly represented the times we live in and the future ahead.

“From current events I chose famous NHS Fundraiser Captain Tom Moore, now Sir Tom of course, who given the 75th anniversary of VE Day, we depicted as a young man in military uniform.

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“To symbolise how we should be thinking positively and forward, I combined the Captain with the Biblical episode of Noah’s Ark, in particular the return of the dove with a leaf illustrating hope in the midst of adversity.”

Keith added: “It’s about new outlooks, the rainbow ties in with the NHS.”

He said: “There were no names along with the designs so people were solely voting for the design and not the person who’d come up with it.

“It was not until Andy had painted it that he revealed who’d designed it.”

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Keith is chairman of Armagh Down Drumming Association and plans to take his freshly painted drum out to competitions again when it is safe to do so.

He is also a member of the Orange Order and Royal Black Preceptory – Derrycrew LOL 228.