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I am posting this series of pictures in a defiant mood with a determination to document an event which may not sit happily with some people in South Shields. I do it because I enjoy freedom, and liberty to some extent and I abhor nonsensical censorship to some extent also.
I believe this is the second year that the Grand Loyal Orange Lodge of England has organised a parade in South Shields and there were about 250 Orangemen and their families taking part with a number of marching bands to lead them. They came from various parts of England and Scotland including Liverpool, Glasgow, Sheffield, as well as Jarrow and Hebburn closer to home. They are an odd bunch in their "collarettes", dark suits and white gloves (the bowler hats and umbrellas appear to be rare sights these days) announcing their loyalty to the union of the United Kingdom in a sort of uniformed para military fashion with a manner guaranteed to grab attention. The banners and flags carried above head height, along with the sounds of marching musical themes certainly hit the senses where they intend to, yet I can think of NO strong historical connections between South Shields and Ulster or its bands of loyalist protestant Orangemen. This town has a strong reputation for engagement and grand hospitality, we have lived with and enjoyed the company of many other communities over the years with a strong traditional base of Bangladeshis and Yemenis amongst us, perhaps it is our ability to be tolerant that attracted the Orangemen to Shields, who knows?
Perhaps some in the town might also regard them as extreme, intolerant bigotted, divisive, and sectarian, with a habit of instilling their belief systems into their children to propagate new generations of religio-political trouble makers? Perhaps this might also be the reason why our local newspaper and local council have barely uttered a word about the sizeable march that went through our town centre last weekend, who knows?
What else did I learn, other than this miscellany of problematic politics? I learned how to put on a show, how to turn some heads, even if most of them were merely curious or slightly disinterested, the Orangemen know how to make a grand parade, rather than a straggling summer stroll.
I also learned much about some local ignorance, three times I was asked "who are the Orangemen?"
Oh, and If you don't think your pictures are good enough, or lack impact, then you know you aren't really close enough - but you already knew that didn't you :-)
This is the Star of the East Flute Band from Prestonpans, just outside of Edinburgh.
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@Elaine Hancock: Ah yes.....well.....I guess I did look a bit strange to onlookers. There is a pedestrian island in the middle of the road with a couple of traffic bollards on it, so the parade had to march around it rather than over it. So I hid (crouched down) behind one of the bollards, and kept popping up in between the banners and flags to get my shots. That's how I managed to get as close as possible to the parade and look as though the viewer is right in there with them :-)
@Stan: Thanks for getting in touch Stan, I'm still surprised that no news at all of this event has appeared in any of our local media outlets, even though road signs gave notice of it for at least a couple of prior weeks! Thanks also for pointing out that this was only the second Grand Lodge march in recent years, I was pretty certain that no regular marches of this scale had taken place in South Shields, at least during my lifetime.
PENTAX K100D
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ISO 400
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