IT IS the sort of colourful pageant that ought to bring visitors from all over the world, and already attracts a sprinkling. On August 8th thousands of men and boys bearing banners, drums and flutes will drill, march and play their way over the stone battlements of this ancient port in a ritualised but passionate re-enactment of the longest siege in British history. They will mark the relief in August 1689 of the starving Protestant townspeople who had been penned in by the forces of a Catholic, French-backed king for 105 days. And in utter contrast with the situation only a few years ago, the Protestant marchers will be received peacefully and even warmly by the city’s authorities, who come from the locally dominant Catholic and Irish-nationalist community.
When compared with the ugly, tourist-repelling riots that can still be triggered by similar marches in other parts of Northern Ireland, especially the grimy streets of North Belfast, consensus over the main annual celebration by the Apprentice Boys of Derry ranks as an impressive success. It was, after all, this very event which in August 1969 plunged the city into a spate of uncontrollable rioting, and hence Northern Ireland into a quarter-century of conflict. Years of delicate diplomacy have been needed to get this point, involving some risk-taking on all sides: the leaders of the Irish-nationalist camp, of the...Continue reading
via Brian Rushton, Where hope and history rhyme
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