A glorious Twelfth of July, in which people celebrated safely due to the Covid-19 pandemic

What a triumph!

And what a display of responsible leadership, which led to yesterday’s extraordinary celebration of the 330th anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne.

While there were only about a third of the normal number of July 12 marches, in fact the event was scaled down far more than that suggests.

Not only are there normally many more marches, but there are also many more bands and participants and marchers in each one.

But the Orange Order cancelled the July commemorations months ago, when it became clear that Covid-19 would be with the world for a long time.

Since lockdown in late March, the spread of the disease in Northern Ireland has been brought greatly under control. But outbreaks around the world, particularly in America, show that it could easily return, and wreak havoc.

While it was deplorable that 100 people were seen at one Belfast location, clearly ignoring social distancing, in the same way that some of the bonfire breaches on Saturday night were deplorable, it is important to emphasise the scale of what was achieved.

Normally a July 12 brings hundreds of thousands of people out to take part or to watch.

The disgraceful calculated social distancing breach at the Bobby Storey funeral, with Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister not only at the helm of it, but truculent and unapologetic since, despite having drawn up strict guidelines that stopped other people mourning, could have caused people to rebel in large numbers on the Twelfth.

That would have been understandable, but quite wrong.

And it didn’t happen. Instead, across Northern Ireland, people watched from their gardens or footpaths, as the loyal orders and politicians had urged them to, in an inventive and safe response to this year’s unique festivities.

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