This article focuses on the importance of symbols in a long-standing conflict. Each summer Protestants conduct parades to commemorate ancient battles where their ancestors overcame the Catholic forces. While Protestant Unionists see the parades as important celebrations of past glories, Catholic Nationalists feel they are being taunted by the celebrations.
Summer parading season is a particularly tense time in Northern Ireland.
Background In Northern Ireland the Nationalist community tends to see the State, the judiciary and the police-force as oppressive but gradually it is being forced to face up to the reality that Nationalists cannot be kept down forever. The Unionists, however, tend to see all three as weak on law and order, having permitted terrorism to run riot by refusing to tackle it resolutely at the beginning. In the immediate area of the village, there has been a great deal of violence and killing. Most of the victims have been Protestants of whom the greater percentage were in the security forces. The annual parade is by a pro-British and Protestant group of about twenty men and as many followers, led by a small flute band playing hymn tunes.