Editorial: The Orange Order is indeed withstanding the test of time

Taunts about the demise of the Orange Order are like taunts about demographic change in Northern Ireland. It is a sectarian way of saying to Protestants your time is up.

But demographic change, while real, has been astonishingly slow in manifesting itself over the decades. Likewise any reduction in the still massive Orange Order.

Yesterday’s event in Belfast alone was a marvel, as it always is. A parade so vast that when the marchers stop for a break around midday the front of the procession is already well down the Lisburn Road, two miles from its start at Carlisle Circus, and the end has barely reached the City Hall.

It will be a sad milestone if next year the parade is much shorter than its traditional route to the Field in the south of the city, where there are refreshments and speeches, before a long return. But that the Order is considering such change reflects its desire to ensure that anti social behaviour does not mar the Twelfth.You would think from the way some of the media covers the 12th that it was half OK, half despicable. What a distortion of such a big day, bringing tens of thousands of people to venues across NI. As this column pointed out yesterday, the hugely funded BBC NI cannot even give i a couple of hours of annual live coverage.

With GB News having stepped in for this BBC failure, which ought to be subject of criticism from Chris Heaton-Harris, who is so quick to express support for causes he sees as progressive, it was a joy to see Charlie Lawson in the city centre for the replacement broadcaster, amidst the marchers and the crowds.

As the Orange grandmaster Edward Stevenson says, the Order has certainly stood the test of time.

An old cliché is rain not dampening spirits, but that was so obviously so yesterday as colourful parades carried on through downpours.