I can only speak for Ardoune and I will leave it at this as it is tedious as ****. Reasons against - 1. Every year the OO apply to carry a banner celebrating a UVF man who killed an innocent Catholic past the very spot were he killed him. They get refused but the very fact they apply should tell everyone what they are about. 2. The march comes from the community who threw piss filled baloons, abuse and even a blast bomb at Catholic Primary School girls walking to school in 2001. Many involved in the march took part in the abuse on the way to school. Either of those reasons on their own would be enough.
I can remember as a 16 year old working in KFC on the 12th July in Shaftsbury square being asked at least 20 times was I a taig because I was working on the 12th. Full grown men, in their 40's and 50's stinking of piss and alcohol being aggressive to a 16 year old trying to mop the floor in KFC. But in saying this I just wouldn't put any energy into stopping them. Let them do it, as a community who has grown in confidence as well as power over the last 30 years it's make no sense to antagonise these silly old traditions - put our energies into positive aspects of our own community rather than protesting against the negative aspects of the other community. Let them wallow in their past as the future will be ours.
On the 12th they block of town centres because the huge number of people watching them. As for the other parades, na they don't block off towns for a whole day.
Couldn't have put it better myself Mick Incidentally I had a similar experience working in Super Valu and delivering drink to the Legion hall when the 12th was actually held in my town. Talk about feeling conspicuous as a Catholic in a room filled with drunk Orange-men
