It’s like a nightmare from long ago, one I’d nearly forgotten about. Protestants—more precisely, the Orange Order—in Northern Ireland insist on marching through a Catholic neighborhood in Portadown. They are being blocked by protesting Catholic nationalists[1] who “say parades passing through Catholic areas are an offensive display of triumphalism designed to intimidate them.”[2]
“The Orangemen, who take their name from Protestant King William of Orange who defeated deposed Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, say their parades are part of their Protestant cultural tradition.”[3]
“The Parades Commission, the British government-appointed group that for decades has adjudicated such zero-sum disputes, stunned Garvaghy Road residents by ruling Friday that a drastically pared-down Orange parade should be allowed to pass through the area Sunday morning. It had refused more than 1,300 previous requests from the group seeking to “finish” the parade it was blocked from completing in 1998.”[4]Evidently, the Commission had mishandled the request this year, leading to a court ruling permitting the parade to proceed.[5]
That the Orange Order insists on these marches signifies, at bare minimum, an utter lack of regard for their Catholic neighbors. That they commemorate a conquest signifies a celebration of colonization. Their claim of “cultural tradition” for me recalls Richard Weaver, a despicable racist who meant race when he said “culture” while obliquely opposing the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling as forced “cultural mixing.”[6] It also recalls the controversy of statues of Christopher Columbus which offend American Indians as his “discovery” of the Americas led to their colonization, displacement, and genocide.
If by chance you were expecting some sympathy for the Protestants here, you are sadly mistaken. The Orange Order can take their orange sashes and bowler hats[7] and shove them up their anuses.
[1] Cathal McNaughton and Amanda Ferguson “Protesters block Orange Order from marching through Catholic area in Northern Ireland,” Reuters, September 27, 2026, https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/northern-irish-court-dismisses-challenge-against-protestant-parade-route-2026-09-27/; Shawn Pogatchnik, “Northern Ireland standoff puts peace and power-sharing at risk,” Politico, September 27, 2026, https://www.politico.eu/article/northern-ireland-orange-order-garvaghy-road-parade-standoff/
[2] Cathal McNaughton and Amanda Ferguson “Protesters block Orange Order from marching through Catholic area in Northern Ireland,” Reuters, September 27, 2026, https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/northern-irish-court-dismisses-challenge-against-protestant-parade-route-2026-09-27/
[3] Cathal McNaughton and Amanda Ferguson “Protesters block Orange Order from marching through Catholic area in Northern Ireland,” Reuters, September 27, 2026, https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/northern-irish-court-dismisses-challenge-against-protestant-parade-route-2026-09-27/
[4] Shawn Pogatchnik, “Northern Ireland standoff puts peace and power-sharing at risk,” Politico, September 27, 2026, https://www.politico.eu/article/northern-ireland-orange-order-garvaghy-road-parade-standoff/
[5] Cathal McNaughton and Amanda Ferguson “Protesters block Orange Order from marching through Catholic area in Northern Ireland,” Reuters, September 27, 2026, https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/northern-irish-court-dismisses-challenge-against-protestant-parade-route-2026-09-27/
[6] Richard M. Weaver, Visions of Order (Louisiana State University Press, 1964, repr. Wilmington, DE: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 1995).
[7] Cathal McNaughton and Amanda Ferguson “Protesters block Orange Order from marching through Catholic area in Northern Ireland,” Reuters, September 27, 2026, https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/northern-irish-court-dismisses-challenge-against-protestant-parade-route-2026-09-27/