In recent years there have been some important initiatives set up. Local councils have schemes in place to ensure that the bonfires do not contain tyres (which pump out polluting carcinogenic smoke) along with other household rubbish. Not all the sites and communities have signed up to these schemes and there is some discontent over them, as payments appear to have been made to the local paramilitaries to ensure their participation.
The Orange order has initiated a re-branding of the annual 12th Demonstration, as it is known, and it is now being called
Orangefest. This I think is a wise move and will help to move, what is seen as an anachronistic organisation into the twenty first century. Of course the problem of it being "almost exclusively" protestant is one that will rankle with many from the Nationalist community and will forever tarnish it in their eyes. That said the loyalist community are finally realising that their intransigence of the past cannot continue and they are only now beginning to play the media game albeit reluctantly, that the nationalist have been playing for the last 20 years. There is a real problem of a lack of leadership on the ground in working class Protestant areas, which have for so long been under the shadow of the gunman and their vigilante followers. The longer the ceasefire continues the less power will these self proclaimed Brigadiers have and it is only once they have been truly been eradicated that our society can will be able to call itself a new and democratic country.
The new Police Service of Northern Ireland has taken a fairly pragmatic approach to the issue of on street drinking but caution is a by word when a riot could be sparked all too easily should the notion and drink (or the possible of lack of it) take hold. One important note as regards the on street drinking is that legislation has only just come into place this year so the PSNI were keeping a watchful eye to see how the law can be implemented while maintaining order to avoid civil unrest.
The 12th or Orangefest could turn out to be one of the backbones of a future economy here as tourists from around the world come to this beautiful island and see for themselves the cultural heritage parade through the city centre in a positive and celebratory manner.
Here a young member of the Orange Order displays his regalia which demonstrates aptly the issues facing the organisation.
Links to
this years 12th
and the week before
last years on the Shankil Road
and a general set of images
of parades