February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The heavy drinking, flag and bonfire burning, the air of threat and intimidation that pervades in various corners of Northern Ireland, not least Belfast, should persuade the more sensible that perhaps this particular cultural day might be in need of a little revamping.
A lesson can perhaps be drawn from the very large Orange parade that takes place across the border in the village of Rossnowlagh in Co. Donegal. It did so last Saturday with as many as 10,000 marchers and bandsmen from around Ireland and parts of Britain taking part.
The parade proceeded along country roads and culminated in a rally on a beach where bowler hats were taken off and shirtsleeves rolled up.
The Rossnowlagh march tied up local traffic more than is usually the case at this holiday time of the year, but that was pretty well all that the Republic’s police, the Gardai, had to concern themselves with.
The parade route is worked out in advance with a view to causing minimal disruption and maximum enjoyment for participants.
It’s probably fair to say that some residents of the Rossnowlagh area are less than enthusiastic about a parade commemorating a battle 315 years ago, but that’s about as far as negative sentiment goes, or is permitted to go.
Sadly, the story goes downhill across the border, which meanders across the landscape just a few miles from Rossnowlagh.
By no means all of the July 12th parades in the North begin and end in controversy. But some do, especially east of the River Bann where ugly manifestations of naked sectarianism and self-deluding triumphalism are yet the order of the day, and, in some places, the unrelieved night.