The Olympic torch will be carried through communities throughout Northern Ireland next year as it makes its way to London’s Olympic Stadium.
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (Locog) today confirmed all the communities through which the Olympic flame will be carried by torchbearers during the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay.
On parts of the journey it will go via horseback, bicycle, tram and steam-train.
Organisers said the torch will go through 1,018 villages, towns and cities and will be within an hour’s journey of 95 per cent of the population.
The street by street detail of the route will be confirmed next year. The Northern Ireland leg of the tour will include Derry, Portrush, Enniskillen and Belfast. It was announced earlier this year that the torch would cross the border into the South for a tour of Dublin on June 6th.
The relay will also take in hundreds of landmarks across the UK including Snowdon, Stormont, Loch Ness and Stonehenge. Locog said the route give people a chance to “connect” with the games.
Every county in England and every local authority area in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales will host the flame, with welcomes reaching as far north as Lerwick in Scotland to St Helier in the south, Lowestoft in the east and Enniskillen in the west.
Many thousands of people are expected to welcome the flame along the route each day and celebrate the achievements of the torchbearers in parks, squares and streets.
Lord Coe, chairman of the organising committee, said: “I’m delighted that the Olympic torch relay will take the 2012 Games to almost every corner of the UK and that we have achieved our ambition to take the flame to within an hour’s journey of 95 per cent of the population.
“Now everyone is invited to plan their welcome and find out where they can go to be part of this historic occasion.
“The Olympic Games are coming to you as the Olympic flame gives our people and places their moment to shine.”
The Olympic flame will be lit in Olympia in Greece in May. British Airways will fly the torch into the UK.The 70-day relay will start at Land’s End, Cornwall on the morning of May 19th.
PA