Our motto matters (From St Helens Star)
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Martin Murray and Andy Reid back campaign to restore St Helens motto
10:47am Thursday 6th September 2012 in News By Stephen Mather, Senior reporter
Martin Murray and Andy Reid (far left) gathered outside Lantree Park to support the drive to restore the town’s motto. They are pictured alongside campaigners Ian Taylor (back), Darren Lilly and Martin Blondel, of the Steve Prescott Foundation
THE campaign to restore the town’s former motto is packing some extra punch.
Boxing champ Martin Murray and local hero Andy Reid signed up for the crusade to have Ex Terra Lucem brought back.
Market trader Darren Lilly, 42, is leading the campaign following the Star’s story’s about how the latin phrase influenced the opening of London 2012’s Olympic Games.
He recruited Murray after the boxer revealed on Twitter how he planned to have the motto as his next tattoo.
Ex Terra Lucem, or ‘Out of the earth came light’, was dropped in 1974 following boundary changes, for Prosperitas In Excelsis, which, according to St Helens Council, means ‘Flourishing Well’.
Murray and Reid were among campaigners who gathered outside Langtree Park, which features the phrase in bold lettering under the club’s title, to call on the council to consider a change.
British Middleweight champion Martin said: “I was reading about the logo online and Ex Terra Lucem makes more sense, because it relates to us as a town.
“After the Olympics, it’s gained momentum and I completely back it. I’m a St Helens lad and live close to the stadium, but I didn’t even realise Ex Terra Lucem was on the side.
“So it relates to the club and the town. On this plot of land we have a new stadium, so out of the earth came light. It seems appropriate.”
Andy Reid, the former soldier who has overcome horrific injuries in Afghanistan, was equally as forthright, adding: “For myself being from an Army background, our motto was ‘Fortune Favours the Brave’. That relates to people like me, who have been injured, but are moving forward.
“Ex Terra Lucem embodies what the town is about. We need everyone to get behind it, to form that common bond about the town.
“It says who you are and where you are from. The town has to move forward and grow.”
Darren, from Parr is delighted with how the campaign is catching on: “It’s a more hopeful motto for the future.
“The change is symbolic of getting people behind the town.”
Pointing to the side of Langtree Park, where the old motto shines in large white letters, he added: “Eamonn McManus (the Saints chairman) must like it.”
