Orangemen's Day

July 12th and 13th

We were fortunate enough to be around Belfast for a national holiday which some celebrate and others do not. “The first week of July to July 12, a period known as “Marching Season,” the “Orangemen”- Protestants celebrating William’s victory over James II- parade through Northern Ireland’s streets wearing orange sashes and bowler hats. These marches usually meet with Nationalist protests. Tensions inevitably run high with the occasional spurts of violence and much of the city preemptively shuts down for the two weeks surrounding the Marching Season.” – (Let’s Go Travel Book). Nationalist are typically people who would define themselves as Catholics and would support Northern Ireland becoming separated from the United Kingdom (Scotland and Britain). Unionists are typically people who would define themselves as Protestants and are supportive of being part of the United Kingdom. It appears that there has been much violence at the hands of people who would define themselves as adhering to a certain political point of view and belonging ta a particular religious denomination. I suspect that the violence that was carried out by people professing to belong to a specific religious denomination is contrary to the heart and life of Jesus.
Here are some pictures of what we saw and experienced. We did make it down to the bonfire, which was lit at 10:30. We joined some friends and a large crowd to watch the massive bonfire (pallets stacked two stories high). I was suprised to see that they purposfully burned the Irish flags fixed to the top of the structure. The giant structure collapsed as it was burning. We were moved further away from the fire because people began to see that the structure was going to fall over. It was a bit crazy. It appeared that most people who were at the fire were young and want to drink a lot of beer and party. By the way, I also found out that the Titanic was built and first sailed from Belfast.