Marching Season

Last night as Phil and I were walking to meet Rory at a pub in town, we heard some serious drumming and followed our ears.  We'd stumbled upon one of the many Orange Parades (Protestant/Unionist parades) and looked up and realized we were, in fact, on Sandy Row.  I have to admit that for the first time, I was a little bit nervous.  I realized I was wearing my claddagh ring (really common in the Republic of Ireland and in the US amongst people of Irish heritage), and the only people I've seen wearing claddagh rings in Belfast have been the ex-IRA men.  I didn't take my hand out of my pocket once during the 15-20 minutes we stood on the sideline watching the parade -- silly as that may seem.  I'm pretty sure I'd just have to say "I'm American" and I'd be left alone but there was a part of me that was a little scared that if someone saw it, it might start something.  There was A LOT of drinking going on amongst the crowd, which was clearly excited, and in front of us two little boys about 5-7 years of age were running around with fake machine guns, play-shooting each other.  It was very easy to see how having these parades march through your neighborhood (if you are Catholic) could be seen as threatening.  They clearly have militant pasts as each marching band came through with a different military-style uniform, and man oh man did those drummers beat their huge barrel drums with intensity -- one drum had written on its side "Hit with passion, beat with pride" or vice versa.  You could feel it in your chest.  As Phil said, you could see how much these parades could feed into identity; if you were a little boy, this would seem really cool to you and definitely be something you'd aspire to be a part of someday.  And there are hundreds of these parades.  When we abandoned the spectacle and finally met up with Rory, he told us that there had been some trouble on Friday night at one of the parades.  I'll post a video and some videos of other Orange parades below.  It was absolutely an intriguing (if not slightly frightening) experience, and I'm glad we got to see it.  I've asked and it seems there really aren't equivalent Catholic parades.  Things were peaceful while we were there last night but it wasn't hard to imagine how things could quickly spiral out of control.
Below is a new report about Friday's march:
http://www.u.tv/News/Contentious-parade-in-North-Belfast/a6842af8-399a-4879-aff8-5bd5d264947c

  Below is a video of a riot at a parade on the 12th of July last year (the biggest marching day that celebrates the Battle of the Boyne):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbnQdK8IskE&feature=related

Here is a video of marchers from July 13, 2009:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0dJHVPZzz8

Jeannie