The "90+% Orange Parades do pass off peacefully" thread

[Aaron Boone]

Where I used to reside, there wasn't a problem with the (Proddie) guys marching up & down the street once in a while.

Ardoyne/Twaddell will get the usual negative headlines today, but feel free to post here if your local parade passes off without a whim.

[armaghniac]

Tony Fearon should be in here. We don't have one in Cross.

[T Fearon]

Good column by Alex Kane in Irish News yesterday about need to turn a blind eye to things like parades etc that you don't like or currently get wound up by.And an excellent column by Rev Brian Kenneway, a former Orange Chaplain, in Belfast Telegraph about differences in Belfast and rural parades which allows major parades to be held in republican hotbeds like Newtonhamilton without any hint of trouble.

Instead of the current furore over parades, bonfire effigies and posters etc,I am of the opinion that if these issues were completely ignored by nationalists everywhere (including N Belfast and Drumcree) their frequency and publicity would reduce dramatically.

[foxcommander]

What if all the nationalists went out with their tricolours and cheered and clapped the orange parades instead from the side of the road?

I think that would fix it.


Happy 12th July everyone.

[theskull1]

Ive always said that nationalism should go out if their way to not get involved but let the media expose the utter hatred which exists and is at best tolerated within unionism. The ugly truth is a lot of these people need the hatred to fuel their interest in orangism. Jury is still open on whether that NEED to hate at interfaces isn't on both sides or whether it would dissapate on nationist sides over a long period of not giving a fcuk about getting involved.

[T Fearon]

Exactly.If they were totally ignored the interest would wane

[orangeman]

I was talking to an Orangeman recently. He said that his band was invited a parade in Omagh once so instead of attending his local Belfast parade, they went for the day to Omagh. He described Omagh 12th July as being a fun filled, family day out which relaxed and not a hint of animosity or bitterness in sight unlike the usual Belfast experience, where it seemed that folks were hoping the row would go out at every junction on the road.

Time to go to the country and take all the parades out of the city and breath in the nice country air. Boost the rural economies.

[imtommygunn]

I would say it does exist on both sides skull.

I don't think the media would highlight it too much but in the likes of short strand there is regular trouble. I wouldn't imagine it's all one sided.

The dynamic of the orange order and their parades is very different in belfast i imagine. There are a lot of hangers on in bands who are only there to stoke up trouble. I would also guess loyalist paramilitaries are influential in that.

I'm not sure ignoring it is right to be honest but i don't know what is.

The contentious parades are also stoked up to serve agendas. E.g. The other year when twaddel went through the riots had people arrested from far and wide because there were buses laid on. Who laid on those buses? If it isn't one side it will be the other.

If you ignore they won't go away. I will never forget the first footage of an orange parade i saw on tv on the lower ormeau. This was the year 5 were killed in the bookies. A woman danced around singing an shouting "5-0,5-0" while marching. Why should people tolerate that?

[AZOffaly]

As an aside, one of the more depressing aspects of the issues in the north is how vitriolic the women in particular seem to be. Combined with their horrendous high screechy accents, they really look like they are awful tramps altogether.

Women normally provide the saner perspective when the men folk get thick with one another. These yokes seem to get off on all the hassle.

[The Subbie]

As an aside, one of the more depressing aspects of the issues in the north is how vitriolic the women in particular seem to be. Combined with their horrendous high screechy accents, they really look like they are awful tramps altogether.

Women normally provide the saner perspective when the men folk get thick with one another. These yokes seem to get off on all the hassle.

Ah yes the standard issue North Belfast fishwife will give you lots of things but a saner perspective is not one of them.

[Aerlik]

Where I grew up, the bunting and banners, flegs and arches would be up from about two weeks before "that day" to around after the Apprentice Boys march in Derry in August.  There was a lot of tension around the town.  Gradually as the Loyalist/Unionist population began declining, so the length of time and numbers of Loyalist symbols did likewise.  To the point now that the flegs go up around the war memorial on the morning of the 12th. and down that night.  Similarly with the bunting.  The local band and a couple of others parade and there are generally no issues.  There was even one year when the local heroes were putting up the four aprons that they had to borrow a ladder frae a well-known GAA man, who obliged.

The world will see any trouble in Belfast; it won't see the tae and ham sandwiches and pasty white legs of auld biddies in Garvagh or Coleraine.  We know why though.  And that is what rankles most with the OO.  They want to be seen as "normal" and that it is part of the "protestant culture" in the 6 counties.  That is not to say that an overtly sectarian organisation should be accepted; Christ, sure isn't Netanyahu doing his best to piss off the whole world with his sectarian statelet.

I have often said that ALL parades of a sectarian nature should be banned. 

And what about the alleged bill of 55 million quid for the policing since last year?  Jaysus H Christ that would make some impact on hospitals, schools and training centres/job creation centres.   Do the British tax-payers not have the balls to stand up and challenge this? 

Sunny day in Perth day, but a chilly max of 18C.  The glorious twelfth.  Thank Christ we don't have the shite to deal with.

[Syferus]

I was talking to an Orangeman recently. He said that his band was invited a parade in Omagh once so instead of attending his local Belfast parade, they went for the day to Omagh. He described Omagh 12th July as being a fun filled, family day out which relaxed and not a hint of animosity or bitterness in sight unlike the usual Belfast experience, where it seemed that folks were hoping the row would go out at every junction on the road.

Time to go to the country and take all the parades out of the city and breath in the nice country air. Boost the rural economies.

He's clearly not an Armagh man anyways.

[EC Unique]

Delighted to say it is pouring rain in Tyrone. "The glorious 12th"

[Hereiam]

Delighted to say it is pouring rain in Tyrone. "The glorious 12th"

No greater site than seeing Orange men and women getting soaked in a field.

[bennydorano]

The weather will help keep a lid on things, John Stalker or someone once said that bad weather was one of the best policemen about. Last year's nonsense at Ardoyne was undoubtedly prolonged by the heatwave.