Policing of parades will continue for the foreseeable future as the marching season and the parades will always be the cause of tensions between the two faiths. In some areas the bands and lodges can only march without playing music and without their followers. Often agreement will only be met after months of negotiations. In recent years there has been more and more accommodations reached between the loyalist and nationalists, which has led to a far calmer 12th. The realisation that the sectarian conflict is unsustainable and the new political dimension, has meant that for the past two years we have seen less and less trouble and any that has occurred has been limited and sporadic.
The bands themselves will often display their allegiance to
Loyalist Paramilitary organisations. The history of these groups is such that whilst their place in history is relevant, in particular their contributions during the First and Second world Wars, they are perhaps tarnishing the past with their wishes for the future.
Because of past possible paramilitary involvements and associations the bands are reluctant to be photographed, it is also an indicator of the defensiveness of Loyalism as they continue to hang on to the past whilst not facing up the future. This attitude is seen in the wider community as a stumbling block to the progression of Northern Ireland into a new and democratic future.
Here a mother and child, watch as a Loyalist band passes by the back of the Nationalist Short Strand area, on route to the main demonstration and parade in Belfast City Centre whilst a police landrover maintains a presence.
As a side note the Short Strand estate was designed by the British Ministry of Defense and with only three roads in and out of the area, it can be closed off (i.e. contained) with only the minimal amount of forces deployed, i.e. 3 or 4 Landrovers