Orange marches belfast

[Pippin24]

I’m visiting Belfast today to see extended family. My dad’s family are from Ireland/n Ireland I try to get over a few times per year. I’m in my aunts house and we had planned a picnic in the garden which has steadily been interrupted by orange bands marching up a down a road not far from her. It’s a terrible noise and apart from the assault to the ears seems entirely pointless- I cannot believe in this day and age this is still happening.

it’s a mixed area faith wise and my aunt is so embarrassed about it. My husband has just arrived back from a walk where he managed to see some of the march and has informed me that there are a shit ton of the marchers drinking - singing anti catholic/Irish songs and generally behaving badly. Surely there are rules around this? Grown men with younger kids marching drunk and causing a disturbance. Culture is one thing - this isn’t it. Rant over!

I know you're not responsible for your government now, let alone in the past, but I still find it ironic when English people are so outraged & disapproving of things like this, things that are entirely the legacy of England/GB colonising Ireland.

(And of the reformation in England/religious history).

I'm.afraud also found people in England, (during my time living there) seemed to have learned little to no Irish/NI history at school, and subsequently had very simplistic and extreme views on it.

The bands and the orders they march behind are full of all sorts of people.

It's traditional for many Protestant farmers, for example, to be in the OO and march in the 12th.

Within the bandsmen and women, there might be a "bad" element. Others will not be bad, just part of a family tradition where you play in a band, do practice marches and then march on the 12th.

Unfortunately there are hooligan-y, scum bag, racist etc elements in all societies.... Like you see in some English football clubs.

Oh and if they wanted the troubles back; there would be more than just the very minimal, extremists (on both "sides") occasionally continuing terrorism. Clearly the majority don't, or the agreement wouldn't have held on both "sides".

Others will not be bad

(I should clarify; not "bad" in terms of being thuggish, scummy, being perpetrators of hate speech/songs etc.

However they are probably still bigoted to some extent; but I'm sorry to say that that sort of bigotry is very common in NI - in both directions.
I've been on the receiving end of it as a perceived Protestant (my family is actually mixed religious background but my name is British/Scottish and therefore my identity is perceived as Protestant) many many times in my mostly Irish nationalist hometown.

Yeah they’d be best left in the past.

A funny story though. I was working for a organisation which was really pushing the “civic engagement” narrative. Letting “the community” use their buildings at the weekends, inviting local residents into the canteen, giving back etc etc. Just a big PR exercise really.

So we were having a big meeting in one of the head offices which was in a rough area (in Glasgow) and everyone is waxing lyrical about supporting the local community etc. it was a rare hot day and all the windows were open and all of a sudden the local orange band strikes up! Practicing for the big marches but it was deafening and everyone in the room knew that it was a sectarian band practice.

We couldn’t continue the meeting because of the noise (even with the windows closed) - it just made me laugh that the “local people” were drowning out the “doing good work” brigade who were aghast at the blatant bigotry on display. It sure changed the civic engagement policy they decided to only engage in less deprived areas where the locals would be more naice

Indeed. The participants usually struggle to number a full set of teeth between them. I don't think they're as well supported as they were 40 years ago but still shite and can't die out soon enough.

Mostly banned in Scotland. Recent bans in Stonehaven (twice) and Aberdeen in last couple of months.

It’s a one off and a few days a year in certain areas - the general population take no notice/avoid!

Don’t be put off Northern Ireland reading this, it’s beautiful and we’re great craic.

from reading it appears they are slowly being squeezed out in NI also. My aunt tells me that years ago there used to be day long tv coverage of the 12th now it’s a news segment. I know a little of the OO just from reading up and it appears to be losing popularity year on year. I don’t see how it can survive - NI is too advanced now- still though it creates a divide -
its sad to see neighbours pitted against ea ch other like this.

Do you even have a clue?

It's a national bloody embarrassment OP. Like something from the Dark Ages. Thankfully I live in an area where there's very little of this nonsense. My dad was a Protestant from the Shankhill Road and my mum was a Catholic (and I'm an atheist!) so I consider myself reasonably unbiased. But I think the Orange bands, glorifying their contempt for Catholics, are an absolute disgrace.

But it’s Kulture, OP

I grew up in a town in the west of Scotland where this was normal. And the one I live in now has them regularly as well.

I'm a Catholic in the North,I don't actually mind the bands marching as in the noise of the drums etc. However the trouble it brings is ridiculous! The drinking,the rubbish,the urinating in people's front gardens snd all the road closures and a loss to local businesses.

I feel like they've been practicing for ages now.

Thankfully they don't march in my area but not too far can hear it like

Is it any different to Yaxley-Lennon aka Tommy Robinson and his band of bigots in Central London today?

Utter, unadulterated bullshit. There are Orange Lodges in the US, but the last Orange March took place in NYC in 1871. Anti-Catholic marches would not be tolerated in the US today, and I say that as a Protestant who converted to Catholicism.

I’m confused, why do Scots do the match too? If they are in Scotland I’m presuming they are not related to Protestant Scot’s that went to settle in Northern Ireland 100’s of years ago, why do they care?! Can someone teach me on this one

They get rougher and more unpleasant each year, and deliberately so. The least worst option is for everyone else to blank it and wait for the season to pass.

They had them in Liverpool when I was a student. Very rough looking people and beer cans thrown everywhere. It just seemed so old fashioned.

Because William of Orange was the protestant king William II of Scotland.

Orange order lodges closely related to freemasonry. Symbolism, uniform, aims are the same. They were born from each other. Catholicism only religion not compatible with freemasonry. 33 degrees in freemasonry. When you get to 33rd degree, you realise that the 'higher power' you worship is satan himself. Bad, bad news.

Plus certain parts of Lanarkshire love nothing more than a bit of religious intolerance ;-)

I lived in Glasgow for years. Obv the big march was the one before the 12th (so they could pop over and join the 'celebrations' in NI for the actual 12th) but they were also held frequently throughout the year on random Saturdays. Really got on my wick.

In fact I'm sure I read that more orange marches take place in Glasgow annually than in Belfast.

Good idea they should put a stop to it I don't know why no one has thought of that before.

The next time you go to visit NI you can instead listen to the sounds of rioting and violence.

The Orange culture is based on supremacy that the ‘natives’ should know their place. The marches are designed to intimidate and assert domination.

Orange members have to swear never to attend a Catholic church. Members have been ‘disciplined’ for attending the funeral of a Catholic policeman. https://amp.theguardian.com/uk/2011/sep/15/unionists-orange-order-kerr-funeral

Hateful bigots.

Thankfully attendance is dropping rapidly.

There are orange orders in Canada, the US and ,I believe, Australia.

I read that there were still marches in North America, and didn't realise it only meant Canada;.

"There are also Twelfth marches in Canada and Australia. As the longest consecutively held parade in North America (first held in 1821), the Twelfth March was the largest parade in Toronto[46] when thousands of Orangemen would march in front of tens of thousands of spectators, until the 1970s.[47] At the time, the Orange Order held such sway that membership in the Order was an unspoken prerequisite for holding civic office.[48] However, the march's popularity has drastically diminished in recent years, as only about 500 people participate in modern Orange parades.[46] Orangemen's Day is still a provincial public sector holiday in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador,[49] but not a shops closing holiday.[50]"

Re. the tradition of marching bands in the US and Canada; I meant there is a (possibly related) tradition of marching bands, pipe bands etc. in those countries. That is all. (Not bands who march in OO parades, as in NI).

Anyway ....with your fabulous tact, diplomacy, politeness and respectful inoffensive manner, you should really come here and sort out the political problems. What could go wrong.