[U] A book review on: Blood & Thunder – Inside an Ulster Protestant Band[/U]

Blood & Thunder – Inside an Ulster Protestant Band – A book-review.

Introduction:

This is a review about and with cited extracts from the the book “Blood & Thunder – Inside an Ulster Protestant Band” written by Darach MacDonald, published by the publisher Mercier Press in 2010. The book tells the story about the Castlederg Young Loyalists Flute Band, which the author has accompanied for one year and can be taken as exemplary valid for many Ulster Protestant Bands in Northern Ireland.

Citations from the book´s content are always put in italics to distinguish them from my own opinions, which are either before or after the citation placed. The book contains 335 pages (without index and appendix) so although the citations used in this review might appear as many, in fact it is a small amount in compare to the whole content, but some citations had to be of a certain length to keep the context of which the story is about.

About the author of the book:

The author, Darach MacDonald, is himself non-affiliated to Unionist or Loyalist culture and therefore as much an outsider as anybody who has just superficial knowledge about Unionist culture. As he writes in his introduction about his talk with the founding bandmaster of the Castlederg Young Loyalists Flute Band, Derek Hussey:

… For here I am, an outsider from an Irish Catholic background and the editor, until recently, of the local newspaper that traditionally served the Nationalist population, poking my nose into a fundamental aspect of modern Ulster Loyalist culture and aiming to present it to the scrutiny of a public which, if it is familiar with the sound and spectacle of what are widely known as “Kick the Pope” bands, has probably made up its mind about them already. … (Page 8)

The Castlederg Young Loyalists Flute Band is at the center of the book that contains 14 chapters. The founding bandmaster Mr Derek Hussey is the one, among other band members, who accompany him and explain to him what Loyalists culture is all about, through a time period of one year, starting on 18th December 2008 at the Introduction and ending on 6th February 2010 with the Postscript. It is shaped in a diary style so one can trace the average year of an Ulster Protestant Band from practising in Winter to the start of the season in March culminating in the high season at the annual twelfth celebrations, reaching their peak in Summer and slowing down in September and October.

I´m trying to keep it as short as possible, but some parts are to be cited and therefore, I apol-ogize to the reader for the long parts of this OP in advance. I´ll cut this OP in several succes-sive parts and go on my review chapter by chapter, in accordance with the accurate titles written in the book itself.

Chapter 1 – Days of Blood and Thunder

The first chapter is as well about the historical but even more about the cultural background of Loyalist music bands. It´s the part in which the authors meets other band members and writes about the origin of the bands, their interaction with other bands, their historical connections to former Unionist paramilitary organisations like the UVF and UDA and of course the relations between bands and the Orange Order. It is not, as many like to believe, that every band is that close connected to either the UVF/UDA in the past or the OO as well as in the past as in the present. The majority of the bands are in fact independent organisations who often are allowed to use Orange Halls for their music practice and in exchange perform at OO events on request of the OO, but still are no part of the Order itself. The bands rely on themselves and their members, the fund raising and the selling of music CDs and DVDs with the bands performances on record, preferably sold at marching events to the public.

At the start of that chapter, the author writes:

Unlike the Orange Order and other loyal institutions, the Blood and Thunder flute bands make no claims of middle-class respectability and they are certainly not incorporated into the global context of a Masonic and benevolent society tradition. Instead, their image is stridently urban and working-class, proudly and provocatively Loyalist, and one of a quintes-sentially modern Ulster. Although often shunned and disparaged by polite Unionism, and at best neglected by most commentators on Northern Irish affairs, these bands, the culture they represent and the social networks that surround them are the most vibrant and energetic aspect of Ulster Loyalism in the early twenty-first century. … They are self-regenerating social and cultural clubs with overwhelmingly young, single and almost exclusive male memberships. … (Page 19)

As the reader will find out through the chapters of the book, the Castlederg Young Loyalists (in short CYL) are not an exclusive male band, they also have female members in various capacities (playing the flute or serving as the colour party on marches) and they are second to none of the male members.

Chapter 2 – A band of brothers

Starting on 15th January 2009, the chapter tells more about the historical and cultural back-ground, also with reference to the symbols of the band uses and their locality and this is the time where the band members are practicing indoors to prepare themselves for the upcoming marching season.

One story that still plays an important part in the culture of that band was what follows:

… Robbie´s brother, Norman McKinley, of Breezemount Park, Castlederg, was one of two Castlederg Protestants killed in a 200lb IRA landmine explosion in the nearby townland of Second Corgary on 14 July 1984. He was 32, single, a private in the Ulster Defence Regiment. He was Robbie´s brother and, with him, a founder member of the Castlederg Young Loyalists Flute Band and a member of its flute corps.
“It was a Saturday morning and we were all in the house, and Norman went out on patrol that morning … He also played guitar and he had a wee group and I remember him telling our mother to have the hot water for him for a bath when he would get back because he was playing somewhere that night. Then shortly after that we got the word. I remember it was a reverend and a member of the UDR who came to tell us.”
Private McKinley died immediately in the blast which ripped through his military Landrover when it was detonated from a vantage point just across the border at 11 a.m. on that summer Saturday morning. … (Pages 57 – 58)

The other person who also died on that day by the same IRA blast was Heather Kerrigan:

… By the time a helicopter rescue party reached the scene, Corporal Heather Kerrigan, a twenty-year-old single woman from Kilclean Road in Castlederg was beyond sav-ing. She died in the helicopter on the way to hospital. On at least one occasion in Belfast, Heather had carried a flag in the colour party of the Castlederg Young Loyalists Flute Band. Her brother, also in the patrol, was seriously wounded but, luckily, he survived.
“I knew that wee girl very well too” says Robbie McKinley. “You know, I still feel it the same as I did back then and it will be twenty-five years on 14 July next”. … (Pages 58 – 59)

Every year on that date, 14 July, the band goes on commemoration march to honour these two lost members.

Chapter 3 – Air on a Bluetooth

This part is about internal activities of the band, such as the annual election of the band mas-ter, further practice and rehearsals, the use of modern technology as to produce CDs and DVDs of the band and the efforts taken to get their own internet website established, working and modernized by shifting to a provider they have to pay for the domain.

Something, as well informative in that chapter is this part:

… In the busy coffee shop at the Old Courthouse in Markethill, County Armagh, Quincey Dougan hands me a leaflet to read while he goes off to order tea. It is headed “Loy-alist Marching Bands: Misunderstood and Misrepresented?” and it points out that the bands represent a culture that has evolved over centuries to become the “largest musical youth movement in the United Kingdom and Ireland” providing a disciplined social outlet for more than 20,000 active members. … (Page 81)

As the reader will easily find while reading through the chapters of that book, the CYL is in strict accordance with the above mentioned standards. Some might say that all stands and falls with the conduct and leadership of the band master, but it is not just the leading figure of the band alone, it´s the band members themselves as well that do comply with those standards and it pays off for them when on parade at public events.

Chapter 4 – For God and Ulster

Some part connected with faith and fate among the other matters of the band. A general statement on religion tells that:

… While some band members wear their Christianity openly, they are content that the band itself is no more than a secular expression of their identity and culture. … (Pages 87 – 88)

What has left some deep impression on my mind was that part of a member´s story:

… Neil Johnston found Jesus and was saved on the side of the road between his home in Irvinestown and Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. He had just been in a critical acci-dent and was suffering from serious head injuries, spine damage, a punctured lung and his right arm was hanging by a few remaining threads of nerves. Yet Neil firmly believes that divine fortune ensured that vital help was at hand and, as he began the slow and painful path to recovery, his faith in the Lord and his passionate desire to rejoin the ranks of a Blood and Thunder flute band kept his spirits up and his hopes alive. … (Page 88)

The desire and commitment of this man to Loyalist music band culture, he grew up with and which he loves really dearly, gave him strength and the will to overcome his injuries and de-spite medical prediction, to walk again on his own feet. Mr Johnston later, after he had re-covered fully, joined the Castlederg Young Loyalists Flute Band he admired for a long time before and is very committed to the activities of that band.

Some remarks on religion and politics:

… Religious practice and observance have subsided in Northern Ireland in line with the fall-off elsewhere, although on a somewhat delayed timescale. Because of that, the most obvious markers in the divided community have become secular. …
Quincey Dougan of the Ulster Bands Forum believes that the overwhelming majority of bands are now apolitical, as they have no direct political mission, and he contrasts that with the GAA which has had a clear political objective in promoting Irish Nationalism since its foundation in the 1880s. … We bring things with us into bands because that´s who we are, but there are no implants and there´s no overarching constitution or objectives. … (Page 99)

Chapter 5 – In the Footsteps of Heroes

The part that explains what is at the core of this bands tradition and home. A journey into the past displayed in a special performance to commemorate those who went out from this place to contribute and make the ultimate sacrifice in two world wars. It was early February 2009 when this event took place.

… The show, entitled “In the Footsteps of Heroes – From the Somme to D Day” starts at 9 p.m. in the Castle Inn and is billed as an “event to recall in music and words the heroic sacrifice of those who went to war for King and country”. The occasion, staged with energy, pace and colourful presentation by the amateur members of an Omagh-based Under the White Ensign Cultural Association, also brings a glint to the eye, a swagger to the step and quite a few raucous cheers as well. (Page 102) …

During that show on that evening / night, the audience was to take a journey into the past by music, recitations of poems, singing songs of and from each period, performed by actors dressed in the proper dresses of those times. As it went, the people enjoyed themselves very well.

Some further remark in that book explains something to the reasons for why such perfor-mances take place and why it is regarded as an important part of their cultural calendar.

… Northern Ireland Loyalist culture is pervaded with an absolute conviction that Northern Ireland´s Unionists have done more, suffered more and sacrificed more for their British identity than any other people. The ritual of public performance and recognition that inspires, motivates and compels the marching season right through to Remembrance Sunday ceremonies in mind-November is an acknowledgement and public celebration of their past loyalty and sacrifice; the culture of politics is there constantly in the daily reminders of the flags and emblems. … For although Ulster Loyalism is deeply rooted in the Ascendancy established in the Glorious Revolution of the seventeenth century, the shibboleths of modern Loyalist identity are drawn from and constantly associated with the Great War, and in particular with the fateful Battle of the Somme in 1916. … (Pages 104 – 105)

In the continuing of this chapter, further references are made regarding the 36th Ulster Division and other aspects related to both world wars. That explains on a further telling the reasons for why the military aspect has so high regards to them. It´s got to do with remembrance not with plain militarism.

Chapter 6 – January, February, March, March, March

Tuesday, 17th March 2009, St Patrick´s Day. The day the marching seasons starts.

… Around this point, a few stalls have been set up selling colourful wares – Union Jacks, Northern Ireland flags and other mementoes. There is a notable absence of shamrocks or other familiar symbols of St Patrick´s Day. Meanwhile, a stall with a large banner for the parade´s host band, the Cormeen Rising Sons of William Flute Band, is doing a brisk trade in burgers and soft drinks in aid of the Buddy Bear Trust in Dungannon, the only dedicated educational facility in Ireland for children with cerebral palsy. … (Page 123)

There is lot of charity work in which bands are involved. This was just one example of it.

On one occasion, there was a parade of a Loyalist Band in Limerick, Republic of Ireland, on St Patrick´s Day celebrations, as Quincey Dougan told the author:

… “I was anxious to do something different with the band a few years ago and I came across this marching bands festival in Limerick on St Patrick´s weekend. I said to our boys that we should go. Aye we´d go anywhere you know. We got a grant for it, which was a help; whenever you´re getting the hotel and all free, it´s easier to convincing the boys. So we went down and paraded through Limerick. We carried the Union Jack and all our band´s flags and we did not make any compromise, no changes whatsoever; every tune we play up here, we played down there. And we walked through Limerick and we ended up at Limerick´s Church of Ireland cathedral, which was weird for us in a way. But the reception we got … there literally wasn´t one adverse reaction in any shape or form about that parade.”
Public tolerance of Blood and Thunder in Limerick contrasts with his experience closer to home, where the virtually unknown St Patrick´s Day parade in Killylea is the prelude to thou-sands of further parades during a season that goes into October, before indoor events resume. … (Pages 127 – 128)

A couple of pages later, Quincey Dougan goes on and tells about where both sides have common tunes, but separate texts.

... I remember being at a conference in Dundalk a few years ago … I had a tin-whistle in the car and I brought it in and I´m footering about and there was a young fellow there and he said he was in the Lurgan Martyrs Republican Flute Band. So, besides the fact that he couldn´t play that well …, we were playing tunes, and the weirdest thing to me was the fact that one of the tunes he would have found offensive when we played it – “The Sash” – he actually played. … He played “The Sash” because it´s an Irish tune called “My Irish Molly”. …
I went along to the Easter Parade in Armagh, the Republican one. I went in to it once a few years ago and there were three bands there from Scotland. And I was sitting in Market Street waiting for this parade to come along and the next thing I hear was “Pack Up Your Troubles” and then “It´s a Long Way to Tipperary”. Then they were walking through and they were play-ing what we know as “Absent Friends”, and that´s a country and western tune. It´s a strange crossover. Our tune “Sandy Row” – that´s “The Wearing of the Green”!
So it becomes a farce when people say they are offended by a tune. How can you be offended by a piece of music? Music can´t offend. … (Pages 136 – 138)

Chapter 7 – Go Man Go

The marching season in its pre-twelfth run up from 30th March to 1st June 2009. Many parades taking place in different towns and villages where bands meet and compete with each other.

As it comes up a few times in the later chapters too, here is the first time when the usual poli-tics are touching the band from the outside of their own world. There was a parade in Omagh on 3rd April 2009 that led to a complaint filed at the Parades Commission of which the Ulster Herald was reporting about as follows:

… The incident was on the agenda at yesterday´s meeting of the Parade´s Com-mission … [Sinn Féin] Cllr Begley also said he would be contacting the Parades Commission to reiterate the strong opposition to such parades through John Street, which is a Nationalist area of Omagh town. The Councillor also rejected the PSNI´s claims that the parade was policed in a professional and proportionate manner. “If this had been the case both bands wouldn´t have been facilitated in their coat-trailing exercise. We don´t have objections to people parading but in the case of these particular marches, there is absolutely no consid-eration given for Nationalist people of this area”, concluded Cllr Begley. (Page 156)

Chapter 8 – Cubs and Cuddies

The chapter tells some part about the recruiting of band members and how people have come to join a band. Sometimes it is because they grew up with this by a family tradition dating back to the father and grandfather of the new member, but not always is it the case that the youngsters join the same band like their father is, or grandfather was a member of. Pref-erences of music instruments and also personal contacts and friendships with people from other towns are also a reason for why someone chooses to join a particular band.

It is early June and some incidents have already taken place. Incidents one can often read in the media about when Orange Halls have been the target of attacks by those who don´t like them.

… A week before, band members in Newcastle, County Down, arrived for practice to discover that the Orange Hall had been burned in an arson attack. It is the start of the reg-ular high summer tit-for-tat when band halls and GAA clubs are the chosen prime targets. Yet the fact that such venues continue to provide invaluable recreational resources for young people and develop their academic interests as well, is conveniently ignored. … (Page 185)

Chapter 9 – Markethill to Mahervaveely and beyond

This is about the major event. Some might get the impression that it is even a bigger event than the annual twelfth celebrations.

… Make it to Markethill on the first Friday of June and you suddenly understand the huge amount of time, effort and expense put into the organisation, practice and fitting out of these bands. For Markethill is the catwalk and success here can bolster a band throughout the rest of the year, because the ensuing enhanced reputation attracts more recruits and more bands to its own parade. …
Along the way they pass four independent judges and an estimated 15,000 spectators who line the route, especially the throng at the bottom of Main Street where bands generally pause for the gallery. This creates a concertina effect, for while the start of the parade is carefully marshalled to ensure a suitable gap between the bands, the loop in the town centre means that as many as five bands can be within fifty metres of each other.
(Page 195)

And so this event enfolds from 7.30 p.m. up to 12 p.m. on that Friday, 5th June 2009. The people attending this event are simply enjoying themselves and the music provided and per-formed by all the bands taking part in this music event. Same goes for the other event that followed the day after, on Saturday, 6th June 2009 in Magheraveely. Many events followed and the chapter concludes with the 27th June 2009, a fortnight until the twelfth celebrations.

Chapter 10 – Bygone Days of Yore

This is about reflections on the band since its founding in 1977 and how it developed to the present day.

Chapter 11 – From Twelfth to Glorious Twelfth

The run up days to the twelfth celebrations give some examples where tensions are not caused by the bands themselves, but rather brought on them from the outside.

Friday, 3 July 2009. DUP Minister Arlene Foster expresses dismay at the intoler-ance shown by Republican protesters at a band parade in Newtownbutler, County Fermanagh: “Sadly, in marked contrast to the dignity shown by those supporting the bands, a small rump of Republican protesters felt the need to yet again show their intolerance towards our proud culture and identity. Those who attempted to block the parade route, and then proceeded to wave foreign flags from the sidelines, only show their bigotry and prejudice.” About sixty police officers were in the village for the parade involving fifteen bands which local dissident Republicans in the 32 County Sovereignty Association describe as “nothing more than a provocative sectarian coat-trailing exercise to stoke up tensions in the area”. … (Page 241)

The following pages are about various parades held before the twelfth celebrations with a more detailed record of the bonfire night 11th July 2009. Then comes the 14th July 2009 on which the band commemorates their killed members from 1984, Norman McKinley and Heather Kerrigan.

Chapter 12 – Walking the Walls

Some more parades up to the 8th August 2009 when the Apprentice Boys of Derry parade took place. Some interesting part about that event:

… At the heart of Derry city, council workers are erecting “spit barriers”. Huge interlocking devices with the bottom half made of steel grilles and the top of Perspex, they create a tunnel along Ferryquay Street into the Diamond where a wide gap is created around the war memorial with normal crush barriers – a no man´s land between footpath and parade route. … The spit barriers were requested by David Ramsay, Chief Marshal of the Apprentice Boys of Derry, for the huge parade to commemorate the relief of this city of many names. He says marshals at the recent Twelfth parade were put at risk when they tried to prevent parad-ing Orangemen from retaliating after spectators spat at them. … (Pages 279 – 280)

Among other reports of band parades, there follows an entry about a Republican parade, held on Sunday, 16 August 2009 in Galbally:

… Galbally, a tiny village in mid-Tyrone, comprises a church, a pub, a grocery shop with a post office and a few dwellings. … is dominated by an imposing monument commemorating local IRA activists killed in the conflict. … This is the Republican heartland of Ulster and today, two sinister figures in paramilitary combat uniforms and balaclavas move along the hedgerows wielding “semi-automatic rifles”. … The parade proper begins with Sinn Féin politicians – Michelle Gildernew, Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Michelle O´Neill and Francie Molloy. … The Martin Hurson Memorial Flute Band, named for the local IRA hunger striker, is in green paramilitary fatigues – combat trousers, black boots and berets. Some of the eight fluters wear dark glasses. … (Pages 295 – 297)

Whereas every Loyalist Flute Band can be identified by their name on their bannerett (the whole book lists plenty of Loyalist bands by their names), in the above cited case there were various unidentified Republican Flute Bands following after the leading band taking part in this parade. Sinn Féin was to comment on this parade for the following reasons and commented as follows:

… As a result of complaints about the blatant disregard for Parades Commission guidelines, there was a police investigation, a Parades Commission meeting, a GAA inquiry and parliamentary questions about this parade. Sinn Féin claimed it was “street theatre” and not a paramilitary parade, but was put very much on the back foot for quite a while by the reaction to it. … (Page 300)

Councillors of the very same party – Sinn Féin – appear to be very eager to watch Loyalist parades to spot any memorabilia or flags related to the UVF or UDA. Yet they have no problem with their own Republican bands appearing in such a style.

Chapter 13 – Home and Away

Further parades while summer gets towards its end with the grand finale of the season in Omagh (page 311).

Chapter 14 – Marking Time

The grand finale of the season in Omagh, again led to a complaint by the same SF Cllr Sean Begley and in reaction to this a reader of the Ulster Herald writes a letter to that paper.

… A letter in the Ulster Herald takes issue with complaints by Sinn Féin Councillor Sean Begley about the 4 September parade of the Omagh Protestant Boys. It suggests the complaints demonstrate the “sham” of Republican support of the Good Friday Agreement: “Why does he not just come out and say plain and simple, that Republicans of West Tyrone do not want a Protestant about the place?” … “To even imply that there was a detrimental effect to the economy of the town on the evening in question, when we consider the crowds of people that flocked to Omagh to see the parade, is simply laughable. And to then complain that the parade, which lasted only two and a half hours, went “five minutes” over time, really does highlight how desperate he is to find anything to justify his anti-Protestant stance.” … The letter suggests “the real crux of the matter is that Mr Begley and his ilk can´t stomach the fact that the Unionist section of our community have such a rich culture steeped as it is in a military tradition, which today manifests itself in the form of these impeccably turned-out marching bands.” … “This Republican mindset is hardly surprising when we consider that the sum total of their military achievements, as evidenced by the “street theatre” display in Galbally a few weeks ago, consist of little more than masked man skulking behind a hedge before shooting their victim in the back and then running away.” … (Pages 322 – 323)

In his postscript from 6 February 2010 he concludes:

… Finding a community-based means of agreeing parade routes should relieve the pressure on an issue that is fraught with the impending doom of the past. Yet never have the two extremes in Northern Ireland seemed closer on pivotal issues that will underwrite peace and mutual respect for difference. For if policing is the essential bedrock of justice in Northern Ireland that has never existed before for Nationalists, a year of Blood and Thunder has convinced me that parading is at the very core of Ulster Loyalist identity. Choosing to be entertained by it, rather than offended, is the secret to a shared future. (Page 335)

I can only agree with the author on that.