WATCH: The entire Belfast Twelfth parade of 2025 captured on camera in the city centre
Amid searing heat, the main parade of the Belfast Twelfth of 2025 has concluded – and the News Letter has filmed the lot.
Orangemen on the march spoke to the paper about the scorching six-mile march during breaks in proceedings on Bedford Street in the city centre, en route to Barnetts Demesne in the south of the city.
Meanwhile bystanders told the News Letter why the Twelfth means so much to them.
Among those towards the front of the parade in Belfast were DUP leader Gavin Robinson and Lord Dodds.
Fraser Agnew, 83, from Newtownabbey, is a former UUP MLA for North Belfast. He is a member of Duke of Schomberg LOL486, and spoke to the News Letter during a pause in the march.
"It's possibly the warmest Twelfth," he said.
"It's my 65th Twelfth, and I don’t think I can ever remember one as warm as this one. But we’ll stick at it! We’ll manage ok.”
As to why he does it, he said: “The Twelfth means everything. We’re celebrating something: civil and religious liberty. It’s a period, if you look back at the Glorious Revolution, it established the way of life that's enjoyed throughout the free world today.”
Also catching a breather mid-march was fellow Orangeman Hugh Weir, 73, from Fauldhouse, a village between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
“I'm finding it very difficult,” he said. “I’m not the youngest any more. I’ll get on the bus – I might have to have a break. I know I’m going to make it, but it’s getting harder and harder every year.”
He said this is his 38th Twelfth, and the warmest one “by a country mile”.
Heather McKee had come from Banbridge to watch the parade.
She is the mother of Lance Corporal Stephen McKee, a member of the Orange Order who was killed in Afghanistan whilst posted there in 2011 with the 1st Battalion The Royal Irish Regiment.
"My husband has been in the Orange and the Black," she said.
"My grandfather was in the Orange. My sons are all in the Orange and the Black. So it means a lot.
"And the weather makes it – it makes people in better form and want to hang about.”
Eileen Thompson, 84, from Tullycarnet, east Belfast, has never missed a Twelfth, had been waiting an hour-and-a-half to see the parade pass.
"I've been coming from when I was wee,” she said.
"My father was in a lodge: LOL580. My two brothers were in junior lodges. It means a lot to us. It doesn't make a difference if it was raining or snowing. I'd still come out to see them."
Jennifer Harvey, 70, from Bangor, was there with her daughter and grandkids. She has been travelling to the Belfast Twelfth since about 1981.
She said: "It's about celebrating our ancestors, our history. This is what our forefathers fought and died for, so we come out every year to celebrate it."
Graham Sloan, 42, from Bangor, said: “Mum and dad have been bringing me here probably the last 20, 30 years. Now I’ve got my own son. It’s good to keep the tradition up.”
Tommy Collins, 77 and from Glasgow, had paraded in the city before with his own lodge, but today was here as a spectator.
"It’s our heritage. It’s what you believe in,” he said.
"We believe in God, Jesus, believe in Ulster. We’re Orange people, and we’ll keep on celebrating. It will never stop I don’t think.”
Cheryl Smyth, 37, had come from Artigarvan in north-west Tyrone for the day.
Miss Smyth said: “I’ve two kids, so this is my first free Twelfth. The Twelfth is a family day, time for us all to be together to show we are strong, we are proud.
"It’s always been a dream to go to the Belfast Twelfth. Our one is in Sixmilecross this year, but we just thought this year let’s do something different, so we thought we’d come to the heart of it all - and we’re having a fantastic day.”