Word: belfast
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Tommy sat across from me on the train going to Belfast from Dublin. He propped his elbows on the table separating us, and explained the situation in Belfast. He grew up in Belfast on the Upper Falls road (any Ulsterman knows that means Tommy is Catholic). And he lifted his right hand and stuck out his index finger to speak of one side, then raised the left and slowly released its index-finger while speaking of the other side. Then he hit the tips of his fingers together hard, so tremors went right down his arms and shook the table...
...first few weeks of July you can see boys and girls in Ulster rummaging through old junk in every abandoned house, picking up scraps of wood and throwing them onto piles, some as high as the narrow two-story rowhouses. When my train pulled into Belfast on the afternoon of the eleventh, some of the older kids were joining in and throwing old furniture onto the piles. Shops were closing up early and the people on the streets seemed to be in a hurry to get home: the fortnight holiday had begun. That night the red-yellow flames of bonfires...
...elaborately-decorated floats, no gas-filled balloons of cartoon characters. It is a parade in the traditional sense; the men get dressed up in dark suits and parade themselves, adorned in black bowlers and umbrellas, with orange sashes over their shoulders. This year, over 100,000 Orangemen walked through Belfast's center and out to Edenderry Field to hear the July 12 speeches and more than a quarter of a million people lined the streets to watch the parade...
...parade was led this year by Thomas Passmore, the county grand master for Belfast, who was seated grandiosely in an open, horsedrawn landau. Most Lodges had a black car and a band in front, then a six-by-eight foot silk banner before a procession of four or five columns. The banners were embroidered with exotic scenes; many showed Prince William, in different hues, shapes, and sizes, marching to victory atop his white prancer. Biblical scenes like "Jacob's Dream" or "The Parting of the Red Sea" were common and there were a few uncommon banners like one showing...
...bands were primed for this Twelfth, especially the local boys from Belfast. They had names like "Pride of the Shankill," "The Ligoniel True Blues," "Sons of Ulster," and "Young Conquerors." The drummers would weave in and around each other, dipping from side to side; they were the toughest-looking too, with rolled-up sleeves invariably revealing an Ulster tatoo...