instead concentrating on securing their ownership and defences. The Church of Ireland was the Established church at this time (disestablished in 1871) and the area around Portavogie was known as the Parish of Ballyhalbert or St. Andrews Parish. The other townlands part of the Parish were: Ballyfrench, Ballyhalbert, Roddens, Echlinville, Ballyhemlin, Ballygraffin and Ballyeasborough – the site of St. Andrews Parish Church. Portavogie was in the main a Presbyterian village. Many of the fishermen who settled here were "Covenanters" who had come from Scotland to escape the then persecution. In 1735 Charles Echlin bought Rhuban House from the Reverend Hugh Maxwell and changed the name of the immediate area to Echlinville. The Echlins were Anglo-Normans and at this time also had lands in the Kingdom of Fife, Scotland, an area to the north of Edinburgh. The Echlins had been gifted "Savage" land by the crown as a reward for services rendered and they set about the task of draining the "Bogs" of the Ardes. A contribution that can be seen today in the quality of the fertile arable land of the "Bogs". The area is once again known as Rubane. The past 50 years has seen enormous changes in the look of the village. The rebuilding of the harbour from a "pretty", safe anchorage to the modern look of today's industrial facility is progress, although one could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. In 1900 there were 18 family names associated with Portavogie: Adair, Pyper, Warnock, Boyd, Rutherford, Lawson, Ambrose, Thompson, McKee, Clint, Hughes, Cully, Edmund, Palmer, Young, McVea, McClements and Coffey. Many of these family lines have continued to this day and the list of names of Portavogie residents grows ever longer. In 1985 Princess Anne, Mrs. Mark Phillips, visited the village to officially open the new harbour and was received by the local community, she toured the fishing boat "Willing Lad" accompanied by its skipper, James McClements. In 1999 she (now The Princess Royal) revisited the village and opened the new Community centre on New Harbour Road. Portavogie had the honour, on 12 July 2008, of holding the annual band parade which was attended by a large number of people. Portavogie Rangers hold an annual football tournament called the George Best Trophy in memory of the former Man Utd and Northern Ireland striker. They also hold a five a side tournament on the eleventh of July every year. The