BF2S Forums It's Marching Season Again ...Place Your Bets!

Something about Ireland. Ireland isn't what it used to be, maybe some violence (isolated) and that's it. Nothing big.

Cougar wrote:

I'm sorry, I have no clue what you are talking about. 


Care to explain in detail before I vote?

The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland is the governing body of the Orange Order in Ireland. It has 373 members, 250 of which are appointed by County Lodges. Its Central Committee is made up of three members from each of the six counties of Northern Ireland (Londonderry, Antrim, Down, Tyrone, Armagh, and Fermanagh), two each from the remaining Ulster counties (Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan), one from Leitrim, and 19 others.

Members are required to be Protestant with a belief in the Trinity. This excludes Catholics, Unitarians and certain other Christian denominations and all non-Christians.[1] Most jurisdictions require both the spouse and parents of potential applicants to be Protestant, although the Grand Lodge can be appealed to make exceptions for converts. Members of the Order face the threat of expulsion for attending any Catholic religious ceremonies.

Parades form a large part of Orange culture. Most Orange lodges hold an annual parade from their Orange Hall to a local church. The sect of the church is quite often rotated, depending on local demographics. Monthly meetings are held in Orange Halls. Orange Halls on both sides of the Irish border often function as community halls for Protestants and sometimes those of other faiths, though this was more common in the past. The halls quite often host community groups such as credit unions, local marching bands, Ulster Scots and other cultural groups as well as religious missions and political parties such as the Ulster Unionist Party. Orange Halls have often been the target of Republican/Nationalist vandalism, paint bombings, sectarian graffiti and arson attacks with many of the halls suffering severe damage, if not complete destruction.

The highlights of the Orange year are the marches leading up to the celebrations on the Twelfth of July. The Twelfth however remains a deeply divisive issue, not least because of allegations of triumphalism and anti-Catholicism against the Orange Order in the conduct of its Walks and criticism of its alleged behaviour towards Roman Catholics.

url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_Institution#The_Twelfth

Last edited by Braddock (2007-07-11 14:20:01)

I saw that huge fucking bonfire! How are you allowed to burn all those tyres? Its obviously Irelands fault for global warming!

Brilliant. I forgot all about it and I'm going home to Donegal this weekend - through Northern Ireland. We'll have to keep the foot on the throttle until we're out the other end.