Vanguard
by Martyn Boyd
Title
Vanguard
Artist
Martyn Boyd
Medium
Photograph - Photographic Print
Description
A variety of vehicles are always used to transport the elderly and infirm Orange brethren along the parade route so they can still feel part of the festivities. And they are always appropriately decorated with flags and colours.
The Twelfth of July every year is a public holiday in Northern Ireland and a day of celebration in my native land. The whole island of Ireland is a land intimately tied to its history. And we have a very complicated history. As a people, we have much in common with each other but unfortunately also much that can divide us.
The Twelfth traditional celebrations are an expression of culture and allegiance for the British Unionist people of Northern Ireland. Parades, religious services, political speeches and family festivities in towns, cities and villages all across Northern Ireland and the northwestern counties of the neighbouring Republic of Ireland are organised by the Orange Order and always involve colourful participants, from the Orangemen themselves with their various regalia to the supporting bands and parade followers. Though I am not an Orangeman, I am from the Irish/Ulster Unionist tradition on the island and ancestrally Scots Irish, or Ulster-Scots as known here.
The Orange Order is an international Protestant and Unionist fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants. It also has lodges in England, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland, as well as in parts of the Commonwealth of Nations and the United States. It was founded by Ulster Protestants in County Armagh in 1795, during a period of Protestant/Loyalist–Catholic/Nationalist sectarian conflict, as a fraternity sworn to maintain the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. The all-island Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland was established in 1798. Its name is a tribute to the Dutch-born Protestant king William of Orange, who defeated Catholic king James II in the Williamite–Jacobite War (1688–1691).
Uploaded
July 14th, 2023
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