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BALLYMENA (pronounced Ballamena , unless you're a BBC newsreader) is a fine, upstanding, predominantly Protestant town that could have been transplanted straight from the Scottish lowlands. Indeed, most of its plantation settlers came from the southwest of Scotland, and the Ballymena accent still retains traces of Scottish lowlands speech. Like many Northern Irish towns, its prosperity derived from the linen trade, while the alleged tightfistedness of its residents earned it the sobriquet of the "Aberdeen of Ireland". Ballymena is the home base of the Reverend Ian Paisley , despite the fact that he originates from Armagh; this demagogic leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, who has dominated local politics since the late 1970s, remains the most outspoken Loyalist opponent to the Good Friday Agreement. Ballymena's Saturday market is a lively affair and its streets are often thronged with shoppers and crammed nose to tail with traffic, but significant redevelopment has left little surviving from the pre-Victorian era. In the summer, there's a tourist office in the town hall at 15 Bridge St (Mon-Fri 9.30am-5pm; tel 028/2565 3663); otherwise it's a trek out to the Council Offices, 80 Galgorm Rd (Mon-Fri 9am-5pm; tel 028/2564 4111). Next door to the town hall is the quaint Morrow's Shop Museum , 13 Bridge St (Mon-Fri 10am-1pm & 2-5pm, Sat 10am-1pm; free), an erstwhile draper's store complete with original fittings that displays local memorabilia. A mile and a half west of Ballymena is GRACEHILL , a reminder of the curious mixture of religious oppression and tolerance that has characterized Northern Ireland's history: at the same time as Ireland's Catholics were suffering heavy penalties, the country was welcoming dissenting Protestant groups, among them the Moravians (the United Brethren), who founded a model settlement at Gracehill in 1746. The elegant square survives, with separate buildings for men and women, whose main trade was making lace and clocks. Segregated in life, the sexes remained divided in death, and in the graveyard you can walk down the long path that separates the graves of the men from those of the women. For miles around Ballymena the landscape is dominated by one of County Antrim's most mystical reference points, Slemish Mountain , best approached from the village of Buckna , eight miles or so east. This extinct volcano is said to be the place where St Patrick herded swine as a slave-boy after being captured and brought to Ireland, and, consequently, is a place of pilgrimage on March 17 - though others claim his writings indicate that the place of his captivity was Killala, County Mayo. Whatever, the mountain's a steep climb of about 700 feet from the car park to the summit, but the views are well worth the effort; to the north, you can see the ruins of Skerry Church, the ancient burial place of the O'Neills of Clandeboye.
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