Twelfth of July IN PICTURES: Independent Orangemen on the march in Ballymoney

This year’s parade of the Independent Orange Order took place in Ballymoney – and here is a selection of the images from the day.

It may be much smaller than other such Twelfth parades, but it still featured a riot of rich colour and the sight of old and young alike marching in tandem.

placeholder image — One of the images of the Independent Orange parade in Ballymoney (all photos below are from the same event)

William Fenton (79), the Co Antrim Grand Secretary and Assistant Imperial Grand Secretary, told the News Letter beforehand: “It’s great to be back at a normal Twelfth.

“The last two years, we’d had small local parades at our halls. Last year in Ballymoney we did a parade around the town, but no platform proceedings. It was better than nothing.”

Now the full scale Twelfth offers the chance for “fellowship with people they haven’t been able to get time with these past two years”.

The order split from the main bulk of the orange fraternity in 1903, amid a complicated spat centring on a fall-out among Belfast politicians over the inspection of Catholic laundries.

Today the organisation is based largely, but not exclusively, in north Antrim.

You can read details of the day’s resolutions at this link.