CONSPICIOUS COURAGE MEDAL.

When a Chief or Clansman demonstrates an act of exceptional courage or service either to the community or to Campaigners a special medal will be presented.

This is awarded for outstanding bravery. Application for the consideration of the awarding of this medal is made to Headquarters via the Regional Chief and must be supported by a citation of the act of bravery. The medal which takes precedence over all other Campaigner awards has a gold ribbon.

In almost the fifty years that the Campaigner Movement has been known in Northern Ireland there has only been one recipient of this prodigious award. Mark Irwin, the son of Cecil and Glenis Irwin then Chiefs in the Cloveneden Presbyterian Church in Loughgall - was presented with this Conspicious Courage Medal by the Chairman of the Council of Management of The Campaigners the Rev. John Gaskell.

The presentation took place before five hundred young people who had gathered in Newtownbreda Baptist Church for the Campaigner Rally in October 1985. This was in recognition of Mark’s bravery in rescuing a young lady from drowning in the Craigavon Lakes on Old Years night the 31 st of December, 1984. Subsequently he was also given the Royal Humane Society Award.

Mark is now married to Lorna and their two sons James aged 8 and Andrew aged 4 attend Limavady Baptist Campaigners - a third Generation.



We are indeed grateful to our Former Regional Chief, Mr John B McClelland, for the above article on the outstanding courage shown by Mark.
Many of us who attended the award winning evening remember the challenge and inspiration to our Clansmen which was represented in the unique winning of the
Conspicious Courage Medal.
Editor