Not one to shirk my duty in promoting cross-community relations, I am delighted to share my new video with the Slugger faithful this Twelfth Day of July. And here it is. The Sash. At The Boyne. In Irish! I’d been meaning to translate this Orange favourite into Irish for ages, but never quite got around to it until now. And I can’t think of anywhere better to sing it than “on the banks of that beautiful river”. I briefly toyed …
I’m always a wee bit wary of Twelfths that don’t happen until the Thirteenth. Especially so this year, as it’s a Twelfth with no marching. And what’s a Dara Lá Déag (Twelfth) without a bit of a march… Edenderry will be empty, as will venues around the Province, vacant fields echoing to the sound of birds instead of brattling drums. Flutes and fifes will not be stilled, but their shrill beauty will be curtailed by Covid’s shackles. Normally on the …
Edward Stevenson, the Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, has confirmed that the Orange Institution will not hold its annual Twelfth of July demonstrations this year and alternatives ways will be found to mark the occasion. With the parades cancelled, the focus will shift to communities and whether the tradition of Eleventh Night bonfires will continue given the large crowds that are attracted to view them when lit.
Choyaa is an Fermanagh Orangeman It’s the Sunday following the Twelfth and I arrive into church a few minutes early. The pews are generally empty as it’s the Twelfth period and our minister is on his annual holidays. A lady watches me attentively as I sit in one of the pews, I watch her from the corner of my eye and I suspect something is wrong. I have never spoken to this lady before but I have seen her in …
I don’t think anything better defines the Twelfth for me than the sight and the sound of a well-played Lambeg drum. Pun intended, but the oul Lambeg is hard to beat. I’ll be honest, though. The first time I heard a Lambeg as a child – at a Twelfth parade in Moira if I recall correctly – I must have jumped so high out of my skin that I could have touched the top of arch. But gradually, as …
An outsider’s view of eleventh night bonfires from VICE News. Jake Hanrahan based himself at the Lanark Way bonfire, interviewing those building the dizzyingly high tower of pallets as well as those who came along to the structure burn. Near the end of the ten minute video report [8:50] one lad seems to surprise the reporter when he describes the Ardoyne as “half and half, it’s partly their road and it’s partly our road” and goes on to talk about …
Chris has pretty much nailed most of the 2013 #Twelfth (so far) apart from one issue which has generally passed almost without comment. A couple of days before the Twelfth, the PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott announced that 630 extra police officers would be deployed for the 2013 marching season. These officers would be drafted in from England, Scotland and Wales. The BelTel on 10th July reported: Speaking last night, Mr Baggott said the operational move was made as this year …
The Irish News is reporting that the Orange Order may put a contingency plan in place that would see all lodges in Belfast take a return route that takes them to the restricted section at Ardoyne (via paywall). According to the Irish News: It is believed they [the Orange Order] are considering asking Orangemen to march home from the field along with the three north Belfast lodges banned from walking the Crumlin Road. With perhaps little sense of irony the Grand Lodge …
The outward march on the Twelfth of July leads each Orange lodge to ‘the field’. As well as picnics, burger vans, bouncy castles and stalls, there is a service of worship and speeches. A set of resolutions compiled centrally by the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland are read out at each field. The resolutions give an insight into what’s occupying the minds of the Grand Lodge. This year the first two resolutions cover The Faith and Loyalty, acknowledging religious freedom …
The BBC’s live coverage of The Twelfth of July parade through Belfast city centre becomes more anachronistic with every passing year. Last year, a complaint was made to the BBC and later in the post I’ll refer to the finding. While the capital city’s parade remains the longest across Northern Ireland (Armagh is the largest), the numbers of Orangemen and women marching in each lodge is thinning out, often marching two abreast where once eight would have walked, and nowadays …
The optics of this are pretty ridiculous. The BBC are reporting the solution to the restriction on passing Ardoyne by 4 pm as: Members of three Orange lodges will be ferried across Belfast by bus to meet a 16:00 BST deadline for passing the flashpoint Catholic area of Ardoyne. Orangemen say it’s a peaceful solution to allow them to complete their return parade from the main celebrations to their Orange halls in north Belfast. Details have not yet been announced …
When I blogged our intention to visit the Twelfth in Clogher John Robinson and Iain McClung of Glenageeragh LOL 908, a rural Augher lodge, kindly got in touch to offer some guidance and help. Their hospitality and warmth along with that of their fellow lodge members was greatly appreciated throughout yesterday. So we started our day with a feeder parade in Augher. According to the 2001 Census the entire Augher ward was 55% Catholic and the output area (95OO020004) including …
Around tea time on the 11 July, a bizarre story came to light. A man had found by security in the City Hall overnight, and allowed to leave the building, claiming (according to UTV) “he had been locked in at a function”. It was later noticed – some reports say by a tourist during the day – that the City Hall’s flag/flag pole was damaged. By the next morning – the Twelfth – the Union flag was flying from a …
This morning, I headed across to the Orange Hall on the Albertbridge Road. The 31 Orange lodges that make up Belfast District LOL No 6 were converging to start their parade down Templemore Avenue, turning onto the Newtownards Road, and later joining up with the main Belfast parade (made up of 9 districts). (You can catch the video of their 25 minute parade through East Belfast down below.) There was much banging, tooting and just a little accordion heaving as …
Traditionally the Belfast parade takes a twenty minute rest once the head of the parade reaches Marlborough Park. One Orange man – at this stage still standing in Bedford Street and no where near the leafy suburbs of South Belfast! – quipped that just because the boss man at the front of the parade has Barnett Demense (the ‘field’) in his sights, doesn’t mean to say the rest are even half way there. It’s a chance for the marchers to …
Pitt Park – lower Newtownards Road – could be characterised by alcopops and the bonfire being set off fifteen minutes early … and then clambered over by the teenagers who had lit it. The SDLP election poster for Magdalena Wolska joined the city’s Lord Mayor on the bonfire, along with a message for Neill [sic] Lennon. The large bonfire in King George V Playing Fields was lit on time, but took light very fast, spoiling the anticipation and slow build-up …
To get a different perspective on the Eleventh Night and the Twelfth Day, I went for a late night walk with Niall Ó Donnghaile around Short Strand about half an hour before midnight. While some young folk were congregating around the Mountpottinger/Albertbridge Road junction, the area was largely deserted – the only noise being the PA belting out music in Pitt Park, about a hundred yards away over the wall. Now a Sinn Féin councillor, and this year Belfast’s Lord …
Three years ago as part of an organised tour that looked at the history around 1690 and then took in bonfires, parades and even the field, I ended up in King George V Playing Fields after midnight to witness the big East Belfast bonfire. Late this afternoon I talked to Rob about the construction effort that has gone into this year’s bonfire at that site. The guys were putting the final pallets on the top and ‘decorating’ the bonfire with …
Since Mark and company will be in the field (in all senses), I’ll try and keep a feed running here on CoverItLive which will automatically update from twitter. At the moment it includes the most common hashtags (#twelfth, obviously, and #orangefest, #niparades and #glorious12th) but I can include others if people feel they are trending sufficiently. You can comment below or use the hashtags and join in via twitter. Anyone who wants to relay tweets into the comments can feel …
There was disappointment and a hint of anger in the voices of the group of teenagers who were the first to arrive at the Donegall Road/Broadway bonfire this morning. Days of effort destroyed. (link to video) Sixteen hours early, someone – and fingers were pointing at another community – had lit the unguarded bonfire. The blaze was well underway when the fire truck arrived, briefly pausing before driving off. What the pictures can’t depict is the wall of heat that …
