Dr John Coulter: New band parade routes could march Parades Commission into a corner

Since its inception in April 1998, the Parades Commission has always seemed to be a step ahead of the exclusively Protestant Loyal Orders and marching bands as many traditional routes are curtailed, re-routed or have severe restrictions imposed on them.

With many churches now having the Covid pandemic restrictions around worship procedures lifted, the numerous annual divine services held by the Loyal Orders are also no longer in jeopardy.

This post pandemic era provides the marching band fraternity to bombard the Parades Commission with fresh applications for parades.

In the recent past, a leaked internal document from the Orange Order suggested curtailing of the main Belfast Twelfth route, but this does not mean the marching bands should reduce their parades.

While the Loyal Orders face the perception they are a series of ageing organisations - a perception they would dispute - the marching band fraternity appears to be increasing in numbers. So it’s time for that fraternity to devise a whole new series of ‘traditional routes’ on both sides of the Irish border.

This is a gift horse for the marching band fraternity must seize in time for the 2025 marching season. This presents the bands with an opportunity to launch entirely new ‘traditional’ parade routes in villages, towns, cities and housing developments across Ulster and across the Southern border counties of Cavan, Monaghan, Leitrim and Donegal where the Loyal Orders have a significant presence.

Indeed, given the experience of the pandemic restrictions in the past when both the Twelfth and Black Saturday were cancelled, some Loyal Order brethren, sisters and Sir Knights as well as Apprentice Boys should be preparing to host mini parades in their gardens or rural locations which do not require the permission of the Parades Commission.

Put bluntly, the Loyal Orders should think with their heads, not their feet, and play the Parades Commission at its own game.

During the pandemic, one Orangeman even walked around his front and back gardens on the 12 July, 13 July (because the Twelfth fell on a Sunday in 2020) and 14 July in his Black regalia, complete with his mobile phone blaring out the traditional marching music.

At first reading, this sounds daft, but in 2020 many people also hosted socially distanced street events to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

The Twelfth at Home tradition could become an integral part of the Orange and band culture in Northern Ireland.

Likewise, just as 2024 saw the 80th anniversary of the famous D-Day landings in June 1944 which marked the beginning of the end of Nazi domination of Europe during the Second World War, this year will also see the 80th anniversary of the end of that war.

Indeed, Monday 27 January marks International Holocaust Memorial Day when the most notorious of the Nazi death camps, Auschwitz-Birkenau, was liberated in January 1945.

2025 would be a brilliant opportunity for many marching bands to launch their own parades in locations where no band parades currently exist.

The change in demographics may have put an increasing pressure on traditional routes as Catholics begin living in locations which were either exclusively or predominantly Protestant a century ago.

And its not just the Loyal Orders which have been affected by these demographic changes. Some traditional band parades have also been curtailed because of shifts in populations.

This is also an opportunity for the Loyal Orders to emphasise their religious roots. While such church services are usually held within the calendar year of Easter to late August, perhaps the Loyal Orders can consider extending the ‘season’ beyond the traditional end in late August and hold those church services later or earlier in the year.

The traditional marching season normally begins with the Easter parades and ends with Black Saturday. Now there is an opportunity for both bands and the Loyal Orders to organise parades throughout the entire calendar year and not just limit themselves to this traditional Easter to August timeframe.

What the Loyal Orders and bands need to realise is that the days of the mass protests at Drumcree in Portadown and the Lower Ormeau Road in Belfast are over. The Orders and bands will have to box clever if they are not to be outwitted by either Sinn Fein, nationalist residents’ groups and especially the Parades Commission.

The solution may well be to use the post pandemic era as a golden opportunity to increase the number and types of parades in predominantly Protestant locations, both urban and rural.

The long-term political fallout from the funeral of veteran republican Bobby Storey was a test case as to how Covid 19 restrictions were not enforced. The Loyal Orders and bands should take careful note of the outcome from this fallout and take advantage of the situation accordingly.

However, the Loyal Orders and bands could once again find themselves marched up a blind alley by the Parades Commission if loyalists ‘play stupid’ with future Eleventh Night bonfires, turning such events into anti-social nightmares.

Only time will tell if Northern Ireland is entering a new era of street and garden parades, or if the Loyal Orders and bands will find their traditional routes and events further curtailed.

Indeed, both these sections of the marching fraternities need to ensure they don’t end up with the ultimate nightmare - restricted to events indoors in churches and halls with open air parades confined to history.

In this respect, 2025 can truly be defined as a telling year and landmark occasion for the Loyal Orders and marching bands.

Dr John Coulter has been a journalist since 1978.