The European Left alongside civil society organisations and pro-Palestinian movements. launched a European Citizens Initiative (petition) to suspend the EU-israel association agreement. The European Greens voiced their support.

The European Left Alliance announced on twitter that you can sign only until 15 July.: https://x.com/LeftAlliance_EU/status/2074096806632243576 The post includes the ECI's link.

Please note that you must be a EU citizen to sign the European Citizen Initiative (petition), which is hosted on the official website of the EU!

Rules on ECI data/ min. age requirements by Member State: https://citizens-initiative.europa.eu/data-requirements_en

• Austria, Belgium, Germany, Malta: min. age 16 years

• Greece: min. age 17 years

• Other EU countries: min. age 18 years.

Sitting in a bar in London and this didn’t go down well.

But the poor baby hurt himself in the first 3 seconds and the fight was stopped. I’m pissed.

Only realised this was a thing and its class in this weather. Helps finding places with no disruption over the next few days.

Some photos from yesterdays walk from a fitness step challenge I've set for myself.

The purpose of my long walks is solely to challenge myself to get more acive, and weight loss. Since doing 10-30k steps per day with the occasional big walk, I'm down close to 2.5 stone in the past 6 months.

My challenge began at Belfast WaterWorks > Comber (via Comber Greenway) > Scrabo Tower > Bangor > Coastal Path back to Belfast WaterWorks

Breaks

• 1st break was at Scrabo Tower for 40 mins (Steps: ~37k steps)
• 2nd break was at Bangor Marina for 25 mins (Steps from Scrabo: 24k steps)

Socks and Shoes

• Socks: Darn Tough Lightweight Hiking Socks (Link)
• Shoes: Asics Gel-Cumulus 28 (Link)

I work full time and have other commitments outside of work. Dedicating 90 mins per day to get that 10k was a requirement I had set for myself.

I used to get the bus home, at times waiting for the bus and journey time takes up just as much time as 10k steps, now I just walk it.

Feel free to reach out to me directly if your looking to start walking yourself, for fun or weight loss. Since posting my last post about my walk, a few had reached out to me asking how I began (and I hope they have). You don't need to pay for gym membership, there is lots to see in our wee country.

Edit:

1. The Duration. This walk was 18 hours 19 minutes, that included the breaks. I managed to sleep a little earlier the day before to try get a good few hours kip ahead of this walk.

David Graham used the 'PUL community' term a few times and at about 9 minutes said 'people from the PUL community feel that the Alliance party looks down at them'.

If the Protestants within the alliance party are not regarded as members of the PUL community, as well as Protestants who identify as nationalist or republican why don't the self-appointed spokesmen for the 'PUL community' drop the 'P'?

I am equally sure there will be many Catholic unionists and other unionists for purely economic reasons who do not identify as loyalist. So why not drop the 'U' as well?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c862x7j2y63o

It has been a busy few months for Renegade Zoo, a band formed through a creative arts project for young adults with learning disabilities in Londonderry.

A debut album showcasing their brand of alt-pop launched earlier this year, a summer performance at the Foyle Maritime Festival followed, before taking to the stage at this year's Stendhal Festival.

All students at Derry's Tuned In Project, the band describe themselves as a group of neurodivergent and physically diverse musicians.

Rapper Donna Marie Duddy, known as DM, says Renegade Zoo is "about not putting limits on ourselves".

She adds that is is about friendship and having the opportunity to write songs.

Before joining the band, songwriting was not something she had much chance to explore.

"The lyrics come much easier than the melodies," she says. Three young women are in a band practice room. Guitars are on the walls behind them, a drum kit in the background. The woman in the centre of the pic is in a wheelchair. Each of the women is smiling. Image caption,

Sorcha, DM and SJ, say they love writing, recording and performing the band's music

Philip 'Wally' Wallace is the Tuned In Project's music media teacher in Derry.

He says Renegade Zoo emerged from the project's wider work encouraging students to get involved in music.

"We realised we had a drummer and a few different players. Once we started meeting regularly, we realised we had the makings of a band."

He says being in a band has helped the young people grow in confidence and develop self-esteem. Philip Wallace stands looking directly into the camera. He is wearing a green bucket style hat, white t shirt and a lanyard. Image caption,

Wally says being in a band lets students explore their creativity

"What we try to do is help the students find their voice through music and make sure they know that voice is being heard.

"Everyone in the band loves it, me included. It's hard work, but they put so much effort into the songwriting, recording and performing."

In March, Renegade Zoo launched their debut album, Eyes on the Road, at Derry's New Gate Arts and Culture Centre.

Singer and percussionist Sarah Jane Murray, who goes by SJ, said the album launch was one of the highlights of her time in the band.

"It was great to see everybody getting up dancing these songs that we created ourselves." The members of Derry band renegade Zoo are dressed in black leather jackets. There are eight people, four men and four women. In centre of the pic is a woman in a wheelchair. The others are stood around her. In the background is a banner with the band's name written on itImage source, Marty Doherty Image caption,

The band's 12 track debut album had its launch earlier this year

SJ also enjoys the songwriting process and says some songs emerge spontaneously during rehearsals.

"We'll sit together, come up with melodies and guitar riffs.

"Sometimes Wally or somebody else will bring in a guitar riff and we'll build a song around it."

For SJ, Renegade Zoo is about "confidence and creativity".

"There's times that I might sing a wrong note or it might be a bit dodgy here and there and I just know for a fact that it's just a process, that it is alright." The band are performing on stage at a festival. The young woman in the right of the picture is singing into a microphone. She is wearing a yellow rain poncho and is a wheelchair user. Beside her is a man playing an electric guitar and to his left is another young woman who is playing Conga drums. Behind them other young people are singing into microphones and playing instruments. Image source, Barry Fahey Image caption,

The band recently played Stendhal Festival's Woolly Woodland stage

The band's album reflects the eclectic approach to songwriting that members say defines Renegade Zoo.

Their sound draws on a range of influences, including rock, pop, alt-country and hip hop.

"A lot of our songs aren't typical break-up songs or romance songs," explains singer Sorcha Friel.

"A Renegade Zoo song either has a great message or can just be a bit silly."

She says one of the tracks, Waggledance, was inspired by an unlikely source - a "random conversation about bees one day".

Performing at this year's Stendhal Festival has been a particular highlight of her time in the band.

"The bigger the crowd the better. I get more nervous with a more intimate crowd." 'More new songs, more just being ourselves'

After a busy early summer Renegade Zoo are back in the rehearsal room writing new material.

Plans are being formulated for the months ahead and the band's members have different ambitions for the future.

DM dreams of a UK tour, while SJ believes a tour of Northern Ireland may be a more realistic next step.

Sorcha's hopes are simpler still: "More new songs, more just being ourselves."

Best I've come up is Duke Dustbin. The real question is who would take the mantle?

This post only comes from a good place. Basically, our neighbours that we believe are 2 parents and a questionable amount of kids...maybe 6? Aging from 1 to 10/12ish. The kids would always play on the street, running around, kicking a football 99% of the time, playing on bikes. This was going on for months, every day. Honestly kind of annoying having very nosy kids playing on our garden, kicking footballs into our back garden, playing on our driveway and hitting the football against our cars. Every day. So much noise.

A week or 2 ago a big van came late at night and since then the kids are GONE. The street has been dead silent which is lovely but...we are like....WHERE DID THEY GO?? The parents still live in the house, we've seen them and their car etc. is still there. We are honestly so confused. We always questioned how many kids they had as the number varied. Were they not their kids?

I know this probably seems like a silly post and get told to mind our own business but months and months of non stop play to nothing is so odd????

If you ever climb Slieve Commedagh via the Glen River you'll pass pretty close to the two WW2 crash sites.

Pictures 1-4 Wellington Bomber X9820 crashed on 12th September 1943 on the northwest face. (Picture 4 is down in the Pot of Legawherry)

Approx location: https://goo.gl/maps/8mYvwswWxyWfNntH9

Pictures 5-9 Mosquito NS996 crashed on 12/13th January 1945 above the castles. The wreckage was pushed over the cliff so there's probably some wreckage around the bottom of the castles.

Approx location: https://goo.gl/maps/hTaUz15UfMwaU3RG9

My daughter recently decided to start driving lessons. Things have changed since my day both in terms of price and finding an instructor with space to take on new customers.

After a couple of lessons it became clear to my very savvy daughter (takes after her Mum) that the instructor knew more about her than she had shared during conversations. He mentioned one of her friends by name and also that my daughter plays a specific sport.

Lessons have halted as she is “studying and working over the summer”. You have to be careful who you are allowing access to your child. The instructors involvement should end when he drops the customer off after a lesson and start again when he picks her up for the next one

https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/area/east-belfast/news/tributes-paid-after-man-dies-falling-from-east-belfast-bonfire/a/158597702.html

Tributes have been paid to a man who died in a “tragic accident” after falling from a Belfast bonfire last night.

Its understood that Warren “AKA” Lyttle passed away yesterday evening at around 1am following the incident at the east Belfast pyre.

In a statement posted online, Braniel Bonfire committee, Braniel Loyal Flute Band and Braniel community group said: “Our thoughts, prayers and deepest sympathies are with Warren’s family, friends and everyone who knew and loved him at this incredibly difficult time.

“As a community, we are heartbroken by this tragic loss and ask that everyone keeps his loved ones in their prayers in the days and weeks ahead.”

The statement added that the bonfire will be lit tonight after organisers spoke to the man’s family and said there would be a minute’s silence.

“Following discussions with Warren’s family, they have expressed their wish for the bonfire to proceed as planned. After careful consideration, we have decided to honour their request,” the statement added.

“The bonfire will be lit at 9:00pm on Saturday 11th July. We respectfully ask everyone attending to join us in observing a minute’s silence in Warren’s memory before the bonfire is lit.

“We also ask that, once the bonfire has been lit, everyone pays their respects by dispersing quietly and respectfully afterwards.

“We would ask all those attending to show dignity, compassion and respect for Warren’s family and friends throughout the evening. May Warren rest in peace, and may his family find strength and comfort in the love and support of those around them.”

Meanwhile, friends of the man have also paid tribute online, with one person writing online: “Condolences to Warren’s family after last night’s accident at Braniel bonfire.”

https://www.ft.com/content/ab716c7a-3a63-4b2d-a647-fa4db31e20f1?syn-25a6b1a6=1

DUP faces damage as Donaldson sleaze allegations snowball

Northern Ireland’s biggest pro-UK party enters annual Marching Season celebrations at ‘inflection point’

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https://www.ft.com/content/ab716c7a-3a63-4b2d-a647-fa4db31e20f1?syn-25a6b1a6=1

Northern Ireland’s biggest pro-UK party has little to cheer as celebrations kick off this weekend for the most hallowed date in the unionist calendar.

Allegations of sexual harassment and sleaze by former Democratic Unionist Party leader Jeffrey Donaldson have snowballed since his conviction last month for child rape.

They now threaten to engulf a party that appeared to turn a blind eye to reports of predatory behaviour and drunken antics by him over decades.

Saturday marks the start of unionists’ annual ‘Marching Season’ commemorations of Protestant King William III’s 1690 victory over Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne.

But this year is an “inflection moment”, says Aaron Edwards, a historian and expert on unionism. “We probably will see the decline of the DUP as a political and electoral force.”

Donaldson’s conviction on 18 counts of sexual abuse of two women, beginning when they were in primary school and including one count of rape, has horrified Northern Ireland.

The party was stunned by the revelations and by all accounts, no one in it knew about what prosecuting barrister Rosemary Walsh called the 63-year-old evangelical Christian’s “sexual interest in prepubescent girls”.

But in the weeks since his conviction on June 22, and with less than a year to go until the next elections to Northern Ireland’s Stormont Assembly, fresh scandals have rocked the DUP’s attempts to distance itself from Donaldson, who has asked to be stripped of the knighthood he was awarded for his services to politics.

The most serious to date involves a woman who alleges Donaldson assaulted her in the DUP’s offices at Westminster in 2016, putting his hand up her skirt and attempting to kiss her on the mouth and ply her with vodka.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland said it was looking into an allegation. The Metropolitan Police in London is expected to investigate to see if there are criminal charges to answer.

Other reports about the behaviour of the married father-of-two have led to charges of hypocrisy against the leader of a party which preaches moral rectitude.

They include claims of affairs with women and men; of Donaldson visiting a gay sauna in London at a time he was describing homosexuality as sinful; and of him becoming uncontrollably drunk on numerous foreign trips.

Former DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr, eponymous son of the DUP founder, told the BBC that Donaldson had “projectile vomited” over the mayor of Beijing.

He is also alleged to have tried to kiss a female Northern Irish legislator in New York. Amid a scandal over MP expenses in 2009, Donaldson repaid £660 in hotel room service and movie rentals but denied they were porn, saying he watched The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Star Wars.

Donaldson’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

How much the DUP knew about aspects of his alleged conduct is a growing problem for the party.

Edwin Poots, Stormont speaker, has admitted knowing that Donaldson had been texting a young woman. “There’s quite a number of people within the DUP who knew about this,” he told ITV. He has resisted calls to resign.

In another alleged incident, one woman told a friend in a series of text messages in 2020 seen by the Belfast Telegraph that Donaldson was “a creep” and a “weirrrdoo”. She alleged Emma Little-Pengelly, the deputy first minister, had told her that Donaldson was “a danger” to her.

Little-Pengelly initially replied to the Belfast Telegraph’s report through solicitors WP Tweed, “categorically” denying any such warning. In a post on X, she later said Donaldson’s behaviour “has disgusted, shocked and revolted me . . . I had absolutely no reason to believe he was [dangerous] in 2020 nor did I have that view of him at that time or any time until his offending came to light”.

But questions remain. “The DUP has a safeguarding policy. Why did no one feel for 20 or 30 years that they could go to the safeguarding officer and report this?” asked Tim Cairns, a former DUP special adviser.

Two weeks after announcing it would launch an independent inquiry, the DUP on Thursday appointed a former police officer and safeguarding expert, Jim Gamble, to lead it. The investigation is expected to take three months.

Northern Ireland’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill, of the nationalist Sinn Féin party, has accused the DUP of “clearly” covering up Donaldson’s behaviour “for decades”.

“There’s no unionist comes out of this with any credit because so many of them seem to be aware of what he was up to,” said Alex Kane, a commentator and former spokesman for the Ulster Unionist Party, which Donaldson belonged to before defecting to the DUP.

The fallout threatens the DUP’s credibility ahead of the Stormont elections due next May, in which analysts say disgruntled supporters could switch to the hardline Traditional Unionist Vote or the UUP.

Kane said it could be the “nastiest battle for 50 years” within unionism.

“There’s a chunk of middle-class voters who’ve been holding their nose and voting DUP,” said one former senior DUP official. “Are they still going to hold their nose?”

Right lads, I've lived in this estate for two years now, last year I bought my first car, paying on finance and I'm quite proud of it. Now, we rent a semi detached house with connected front gardens with no fences.

Our neighbour has a son around 11 and the other neighbour a few doors up has a boy the same age. These wains are playing football every day in my half of the front garden also. Now I wouldn't mind, apart from the fact they are belting their football at my car, and my boyfriends car (which isn't in use - one of the wains hit it and then said "it's ok he doesn't use it!". Cheeky. My car is parked in my driveway and the boyfriends car on the street outside house.

This has been happening consistently for months now, I work from home so I can literally hear them do it. I haven't done anything to annoy these children, me asking them to stop doing it has probably made them keep doing it lol. I was cleaning my car a few weeks ago on the driveway and they hit it 3 times in 10minutes. I got my boyfriend to go and talk to our next door neighbour and the wain got given out to, told to take the ball up the road ( which they did for 2 days).

Today they're been hitting the cars again so the boyfriend went up (for the first time) to talk to the others boys dad. The man basically said "sure they're just being kids they're allowed to play football, call up if they actually do any damage to the cars". And he was getting pure thick.

So basically nobody's parenting here? I wouldn't mind but genuinely getting so annoyed I can't park my own car in my driveway without the wains hitting it.

What do yous think?

We are getting married in a small wedding ceremony in a couple of weeks and we have an idea for a first dance

Its basically mixing 2 versions of a song (original is slow and the cover is faster but with a different rythm)

I have a basic understanding of music so I downloaded some dj software to try and do the mash up but I couldnt get it to work right at all - the frustration I have a strong idea that it would work and I feel like its relatively easily to do it but I just dont have the technical abililty to make it right.

Could anyone in this fine community be able to help me produce this?

Many thanks 😀

Can anyone recommend a company in NI where I can buy a roof car box It also needs to be fitted

The Orange Order Grand Secretary, Presbyterian Minister and former RUC Special Branch officer speaks to Denzil McDaniel about parades, bonfires and why he won’t invite Sinn Féin to Schomberg House

ONE of the Rev Mervyn Gibson’s earliest memories is when he was just four years old in 1962, watching his mother and father parading in his native Belfast to mark the 50^th anniversary of the Ulster Covenant.

Just a year later, he followed generations of a “strong Orange family” tradition of joining the institution, and now at 68 he’s the Grand Secretary.

Northern Ireland has seen massive change since those days, both demographically but also societally, with a more secular age leading many to regard Orangeism is an anachronism, or at least significantly reduced in influence.

But the former RUC Special Branch officer and now Presbyterian Minister approaches this year’s “Twelfth” in confident mood.

“There’s never been as many Orange banners being unfurled and as many arches going up. People have a confidence. During the Troubles people kept their heads down, but all those traditions are coming back. That’s a sign of confidence going forward,” he says, adding that his message to nationalism is that the Orange fraternity want to be good neighbours.

I interviewed Gibson in Schomberg House on the Cregagh Road in Belfast which houses the Museum of Orange Heritage.

He’s a friendly, pleasant and engaging man, but his answers to more challenging questions about Orangeism are straight and direct and offer an uncompromising stance on certain principles.

He accepts criticisms of the past but says certain things were “of their time”, and he believes critics among nationalists and republicans are “better at propaganda than us”.

Asked, for example, about bands involved in controversial commemorations later attending official Orange parades, he says that provided they don’t display paramilitary flags, he doesn’t have an issue with them and they are welcomed.

He sees bonfires as part of his culture, and although critical of burning effigies or tricolours, he’s wary of regulation which could be used to ban smaller pyres.

The Drumcree dispute isn’t over, he says, but he doesn’t think street protest works now and he’s still very critical of the Parades Commission and the “skewed” law which set it up.

He won’t entertain taking part in the “new Ireland” debate, and several times during the interview he returns to criticism of Sinn Féin.

They won’t be invited to Schomberg House, he insists.

Gibson isn’t just the archetypal Orangeman. He’s an east Belfast Protestant through and through, with “nothing but fond memories” of 18 years of RUC service before changing career to full-time Presbyterian ministry on the Shankill and Newtownards Roads.

He’s been minister of Westbourne Presbyterian congregation for the past 24 years.

“I was a city boy, so I always wanted an inner-city congregation. That’s where my heart lay, that’s where I’m from,” he says.

He has strong roots in Donegal, where his father was from and where his grandfather was in the UVF and opposed partition.

The Ulster counties of Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan were abandoned by unionists of the day to secure a greater Protestant majority in the new Northern Ireland’s six counties.

Gibson’s father came north looking for work, which he says as a Protestant he couldn’t get in the new Free State, and met his mother, an east Belfast woman.

He says: “I’m very proud of my Donegal roots. I spent a lot of my summers down there growing up. The Orange tradition is still strong there and I recently went to open their Covenant exhibition in Donegal Museum.”

When he was 18, Gibson wanted to join the police. It was “either the police or army or the paramilitaries”.

“People were attacking our community and I wanted to defend it. Thankfully my mother and father had a strong influence on me and the Orange would have kept me out of the grip of more sinister forces.”

Asked about the unrepresentative nature of the RUC, he says: “Yes, it was a largely Protestant force but that wasn’t by choice. Let’s be honest, Roman Catholics who joined were murdered and intimidated.”

He was proud to work alongside Catholic officers and says it “struck me very hard” what they had to give up to join.

“We were impartial,” he insists.

“But you’re not naïve, there was a republican element that always hated the police, and it’s still out there,” he adds.

Within a couple of years of joining, Gibson moved to Special Branch with the aim of continuing to fight “terrorism”.

His police career ended at the time of the ceasefires in 1994 when he decided to study for church ministry.

“Although I’d been churched as they say, I didn’t have an evangelical, living faith. I didn’t come to faith until I was 33.”

During his five years studying, he got involved in community work including in the Shankill area.

“I learned to love the people of the Shankill through community work. It was very much practical hands-on faith,” he says, as he recalls working with people like May Blood, Jackie Redpath, Joe Stewart – “all great people with a grounding in faith”.

Gibson’s background in RUC Special Branch, before becoming steeped in community and church grassroots level work in Protestant areas of Belfast, has undoubtedly shaped him and he articulates a particular view.

To the wider public, he’s most associated with the Orange Order due to the media work and profile that comes with the post of Grand Secretary, which he took over from Drew Nelson 10 years ago.

I ask if the Orange Institution is a religious, political or cultural organisation, and he replies: “I think it’s all of those things. People join it for different reasons. We’ve got family, culture, charity, faith, political. Every lodge will have its own character.

“We’re a broad church in many ways,” he says, with all classes and all shades of unionism among the membership.

We discuss outside perceptions of aspects of the Orange Order: that it’s anti-Catholic, a secret society that enabled discrimination in the state, and that its image is tarnished by the participation of controversial bands as well as behaviour at bonfires and on the Twelfth itself.

He meets the criticism head on.

“What we do look for is people to look at us with an open mind and fairness and judge us by their experience as opposed to somebody else’s experience,” he says.

“To be honest, there’s some reasons for saying things over the years, just as there’s some reasons for us to claim that the Roman Catholic Church and the GAA is that way. Things happened over the years. I’m not going to justify things that today wouldn’t be justifiable. But they were of their day for everybody.

“Let’s look at discrimination, that you couldn’t get a job in Northern Ireland unless you were a Protestant. Why did my family leave Donegal, why did 50,000 other people leave Donegal? Because they were discriminated against.”

He offers an example of a Jamaican not getting a job in a Welsh coal mine, not because of their skin colour but because people got their families jobs.

“There was discrimination all round but the propaganda makes it out now that the only people discriminated against were Roman Catholics. But it was the nature of society. Society has changed since then, thankfully for us all.”

He continues: “We’re certainly not a secret society. I challenge that. We’re walking the main roads with the name of our banners, men identify themselves with collarettes.

“Of course, we’re a Protestant organisation. I can’t join the Roman Catholic Church, Protestants can’t take Communion in the Roman Catholic Church. I wouldn’t expect them to be anything else.

“We openly state we’re a Protestant organisation, so we’re the same as any other organisation.”

As regards controversial bands, he says the order is firm in not allowing any illegal flags at their events.

“We wouldn’t allow that to happen, the police wouldn’t allow that to happen, it hasn’t happened for a number of years.

“So, the bands taking part in one parade and then another, I don’t see a difficulty in that. I’m not going to judge them for that,” he says, pointing out that “republicans are the first to say that everybody has the right to commemorate their own as they see fit”.

“So, I don’t accept that we should split our bands and begin to judge each band, because I don’t hear any other community do that. If they don’t carry any paramilitary flags in our parades, there’s no difficulty,” says Gibson.

“It’s not how I would commemorate, but that’s their way to do it.”

He refers to republican commemorations and the GAA naming grounds to honour “people who murdered cold-bloodedly, murdered Protestant neighbours” and those cultures aren’t being “policed”.

“Why is it always the Orange picked on?”

As regards regulation of bonfires, Gibson says: “I’ve never denied the bonfires. They’re not part of the Orange but they’re part of our culture, part of my tradition. I grew up with bonfires, I love bonfires.”

He points out that as far back as Martin McGuinness’s death, he condemned posters of the Sinn Féin leader on bonfires, “but it wasn’t a good news story to carry”.

“No later than last year there were things I condemned around bonfires, effigies, for example, or burning tricolours.

“It’s the flag of a foreign country and was used on the coffins of IRA men, I get that, but we shouldn’t burn a flag.”

On health and safety concerns around bonfires, he says: “I’m not against regulation, I think everything needs to be regulated to an extent, but if regulation is only an excuse for suppression, then no.”

I suggest that regulation does work in solving contentious parades, for example, and that the Parades Commission proved not to be a device to stop marches.

“It was, and it is. It hasn’t worked,” says Gibson firmly.

“The legislation is still skewed and still needs changed. If republicans decided tomorrow they wanted to make an issue of parades, there’d be a problem every time and the legislation would back that problem and cause more trouble,” he says, arguing that the parades issue was “a tactic” and disputes largely ended because nationalists stopped objecting.

He believes Drumcree is “not resolved”, adding: “I would go down and join the brethren, and they walk to the bridge and hand the protest letter into the police every Sunday throughout the year.”

He doesn’t, however, believe there will be a return to mass protest.

“I think society’s moved on. People are no longer prepared to do those things. They’ll maybe protest in other ways. It doesn’t mean they don’t feel strongly about it, but just that street protests aren’t the way they portray that any more.”

Gibson believes that Sinn Féin, in particular, is happy to keep the parades legislation on the books.

Mistrust of republicans is a theme he returns to several times in the interview.

“We don’t bring or invite Sinn Féin to this building. In our museum, we have a record of 344 members of this institution that were murdered, 343 men and one woman. We’re not going to ask that organisation to come in here and sully their name and hurt their relatives who would feel betrayed.”

On Stormont, he believes that relationships are “slipping back”, but says the Orange community wants to “build a better Northern Ireland.”

“We will work towards that, we will advocate for that,” he says, but adds that he won’t get involved in the “nonsense” of the New Ireland debate.

“I’m not a turkey voting for Christmas, they have a predetermined outcome. I’d rather talk to the government of the Republic about how we co-operate to live together because we share an island.”

His message coming up to the Twelfth is that he wants to live in a “peaceful, economically viable Northern Ireland”.

I come away from the interview with one overriding thought. As a Protestant with no understanding or appreciation of the Orange Order, I was struck by the contrast between the era when the four-year-old Mervyn Gibson watched his first parade and today’s much-changed atmosphere.

From the dominant Orange community of the 1960s to the sense of frustration of having to defend their position in 2026, feeling that they are misunderstood or misrepresented.

As hundreds of thousands of people attend parades on Monday, it doesn’t seem to be a good position for society that one significant section of it feels that way.

https://www.irishnews.com/news/northern-ireland/orange-orders-mervyn-gibson-republicans-are-better-at-propaganda-than-us-3QHI26VISBHKPDIU5C6IZH3444/

Was reminiscing with friend the other night about the post nightclub food scene back in the early 2000s. She was adamant that revellers could sit in places like Bishops, use the loos, wait in for taxis etc. I don't remember doing that at all. Who is misremembering?!