12th July – Slugger O'Toole

Making progress on parading – can Northern Ireland learn from Derry-Londonderry?

Paul Gosling on July 8, 2019, 7:01 am

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As Northern Ireland moves towards what will hopefully be a peaceful 12th July, the manager of ‘the Derry Model’, Maeve McLoughlin – a former Sinn Fein MLA – reflects on how peaceful parading was negotiated, after years of conflict and tension in Derry-Londonderry. “It was spurred on by a commitment to the city,” she says, “and by people who genuinely wanted to be in a better place. “That was the feeling of the Apprentice Boys as well. They love …

The Ghosts of Bonfires past…

Samuel Thompson on May 11, 2018, 3:11 pm

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I remember back in the day, probably around Easter 1971, my pal and I threw down two sticks on an area of open ground in Tyndale Gardens in Belfast and said ‘That’s the boney started.’ Other kids probably do the same thing around the same time of year to this day. There were no pallets then and no tyres. We collected waste wood and the ‘big lads’ cut branches off trees in neighbouring Carrs Glen. I often think about that …

Another 12th July passes peacefully, but other conversations are still needed.

David McCann on July 12, 2017, 10:22 pm

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Another 12th July passes and for the second year in a row it has been peaceful. The PSNI have issued this statement on the events of the day; “We have dealt with a number of minor incidents throughout the day and have made a small number of arrests but these were very much in the margins of what has been widely described as the most peaceful Twelfth of July for some years and a model for years to come. “It …

Bonfire Porn and Our Contempt of the Working Class…

David on July 12, 2016, 1:53 pm

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While the last pallets were gathered and stacked in estates around the country yesterday, moralising social media pundits were already unleashing patronising vitriol. It grows in vigour as the sky-scraping pyres rise ever higher across the province, the self-assertion of Northern Ireland’s armchair intelligentsia whose smug classist intolerance is as easy and cheap as the ignorance they supposedly are criticising. There are, of course, unsavoury and deeply rooted elements of this celebration that are commandeered for sectarian purpose and are …

‘Crime Boy I Dunno’ Comparing stats between St Patrick’s Day and 12th July

David McCann on July 12, 2016, 9:32 am

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Brendan Hughes from the Irish News has an interesting story in today’s Irish News about the level of crime reported during St Patrick’s Day and the 12th July from the 2009-2015 period where he finds little difference between the two events. In his examination he reports; We also studied figures for the 36-hour period surrounding each date – from 6pm on March 16 and July 11, to 6am on March 18 and July 13. The Twelfth comes out on top …

McGuinness would consider going to the Twelfth of July.

David McCann on January 21, 2016, 5:43 pm

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From Rodney Edwards in the Impartial Reporter today. He quotes the Deputy First Minister as saying; I keep meeting people within the community, my community, who say I am doing too much reaching out, who say it is not being reciprocated. I say, that’s not a good enough reason for me to stop doing it and I intend to continue to do it because it’s the right thing to do. Speaking about 12th July, McGuinness said; I think it’s important …

Outrageous optimism and the need for belief in the long term future of the Orange tradition

Mick Fealty on July 15, 2015, 3:07 pm

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This #SluggerReport was recored on Monday and takes a deliberately and outrageously optimistic (although far from naive) view of the Orange Institutions and their future role in society. Taking a leaf out of Carmin Medina’s book (that Optimism is the greatest act of rebellion) I don’t try to deny the dark nihilism that Phil sees in the reckless bonfire culture is there, but rather I suggest we are all conniving at feeding it through a certain comfortable pessimism that this …

Do we need more funding for musical instruments for bands?

David McCann on June 8, 2015, 4:35 pm

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Lee Reynolds in transit at Belfast's Orange Parade, 12 July 2011

A motion was passed in the Assembly today on the need for funding musical instruments and I wanted to get the Sluggerverse’s perspective on it. The motion was proposed by DUP MLA’s Nelson McCausland, Gordon Dunne, David Hilditch and William Humphrey. Here it is in full text That this Assembly notes the cultural, artistic and community importance of bands in Northern Ireland; recognises the importance of Musical Instruments for Bands funding programme; expresses its disappointment at the failure of the …

12th July: A cautionary tale of the social media rumour mill

David McCann on July 13, 2014, 2:18 pm

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Chris wrote a brilliant piece earlier in the week about Britishness and the many bonfires around the province that had posters of Anna Lo and Sinn Fein representatives on them ready to be burned. This form of deplorable sectarianism is not just corrosive to those who legitimately want to celebrate the 12th July but all of us who want to live in an open and diverse society. However, not all of the muppetry that went on over this weekend did come …

Time for the Orange (from the Grand Lodge through Grand Masters down) to live up to its own values?

Mick Fealty on July 18, 2013, 11:25 pm

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The money shot for the Orange from Nick Garbutt, comes down to this: It also needs to disassociate itself much more clearly from all activities which are not consistent with the admirable values that it upholds: excessive drunkenness and taunting and provocative behaviour have no place either within or on the fringes of parades. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a …

What if the PSNI were to charge Orangemen with incitement?

Mick Fealty on July 18, 2013, 10:17 pm

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Newton Emerson column hones in on the law [text removed].. the possibility of arresting senior Orangemen for incitement prior to the Ardoyne violence… The effects could be cathartic… Or indeed in one or two other controversial cases… Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Was the ‘Virgin in the Bonfire’ posed to inflict maximum political damage on the Orange?

Mick Fealty on July 17, 2013, 7:28 am

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Interesting piece in the Belfast Telegraph which throws a little more light on the Virgin Statue on the Bonfire story, which was one of the many Orange sins recounted by Chris the other day… Fr Donegan, the parish priest of Ardoyne, who said it seemed that the statue was only on the bonfire at Lanark Way for 10 minutes before it was removed, said he believed “hoods” from both sides of the divide had swapped stolen cars and the statue …

Time for the Orange and the DUP to take a one way bet on the future?

Mick Fealty on July 15, 2013, 6:50 pm

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I’m not sure I agree that Chris’s account of this Twelfth is quite as comprehensive as John implies, but it does highlight why defending the loyal orders right to march on the public highway might be such a hard sell. It’s nine years since Gerry Kelly had his arm broken defending a British soldier from a republican mob in Ardoyne. The tensions in north Belfast each summer are palpable. And it is hardly surprising. The area suffers a heady mix …

SDLP to lodge an amendment to the DUP’s special motion on Tuesday…

Mick Fealty on July 14, 2013, 3:00 pm

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And it seems that the SDLP will be putting an amendment down when the Assembly meets for a special sitting on Tuesday. Conall McDevitt: “On Tuesday when the Assembly meets the SDLP will seek to give parties the opportunity back an amendment to the DUP motion which condemns the violence, challenges the sectarianism displayed this 12th and supports the lawful institutions of the land including the Parades Commission. “On Saturday at the fields we heard the language of war by …

If we are going to put an end to this mindless cycle of violence every summer…

Mick Fealty on July 14, 2013, 2:06 pm

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Regular Journal.ie columnist David McCann has written this piece for Slugger: Well here we go again; another 12th July is marred by scenes of sectarian violence as PSNI officers are wheeled off to A&E injured. What were the police officers doing to provoke such an angry response I hear you ask? Well, quite simply they were enforcing a ruling by the Parades Commission that banned marchers from passing a controversial flash point in North Belfast. For many Loyalists the decision …

“these two communities who define Northern Ireland do not live in irredeemable contempt of each other”

Mick Fealty on July 13, 2013, 5:52 pm

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There’s a grimness and seeming inevitability to yesterday’s events that smack of the adolescents (some of them long enough in the tooth to know better) being allowed to take over the running of the whole place. But Malachi O’Doherty’s piece is a reminder that, whatever the deep misgivings, occasionally a simple act of civility transcends the madness: …two features of the Twelfth were unforgettable: the awesome appearance of the banners coming over the Railway Bridge like the sails of galleons in a …

Slugger online debate: What’s eating Ardoyne (take two)…

Mick Fealty on July 16, 2012, 4:51 pm

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This is partly a reminder of tomorrow’s lunch time discussion, and partly an attempt to reset the thread that from the first comment actually went on to discuss a video taken outside St Patrick’s church in Donegall Street where (depending on who’s version of the truth you choose) a marching band chose play an old American classic, or The Famine Song. Either way, the video demonstrates just how intense the feelings are around this time of year (the ‘who’ of …

Caption competition: “Laat drank brand uw vertsand”

Brian Spencer on July 13, 2012, 7:53 pm

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Yesterday’s 12th parades provided the usual mixture of personalities. And encouragingly the overall character of the day was rather open and family orientated. But, forgetting the Ardoyne chaos, the customary hotspots hosted their annual drink charged revelry: with its participants scattering their detritus, philistinism and brash carry on for everyone else to see, put up with and later to pick up. As my illustrated comment alludes to I want to home in on these more bibulous individuals of the day …

A happy and safe 12th of July (just remember it belongs to us all)

Mick Fealty on July 12, 2012, 11:45 am

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I got my first live call from an Orange demonstration from a dear and highly valued Orange friend (and, god help him, an Arsenal supporter) at about 8.45 this morning, with the sound of the bands in the background. I’m pretty sure if you’d asked my 1982 self, I might not have had such kindly thoughts, but a lot of water has travelled under the bridge since then. Most Orange demonstrations these days pass off without any need for comment. …

Parading issues require real political solutions not just an ad hoc sticking plaster…

Mick Fealty on July 11, 2012, 12:51 pm

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So it’s the eleventh of July. And nearly all politician of all political stripes are making hay over who’s to blame for any impending trouble in Ardoyne (in the last few years the rioters have been nationalist, and they’ve not waited for those Orange feet to come anywhere near before venting their hatred for ‘the other tradition’. But the Belfast Telegraph print edition, there’s a timely editorial that notes that that for all the Morcombe and Wise performance of blissful …