Orange Parades: The Politics of Ritual, Tradition and Control

This volume provides a detailed ethnographic and historical study of the Orange Order parades, relating the disputes over the right to march to the structure and historical development of Orangeism in Northern Ireland. While a number of existing studies recognise the importance of parades in the politics of Northern Ireland, no major study until now has singled out the Orange Order for close scrutiny - or looked at the changing ways in which the parade rituals have been exploited or coopted by specific groups and politicians at different periods of time. This anthropological study examines the Orange Order parade throughout its history, looking at the development of the parades, the history of disputes over the parades, the structure and politics of the Orange Order, the development of loyalist bands, the role of social class in Unionist politics - and the anthropology of ritual itself. The result is an addition to the general literature on ritual which should be of interest to anthropologists, those working in peace and conflict studies departments, and anyone interested in contemporary Irish history and politics.