Over 50 Apprentice Boys parades on Saturday – but Londonderry celebrations muted

The commemorations are much more dispersed than usual this year, because the ABOD leadership decided last week to resceind its invitations to loyalists across the country to convene in Londonderry itself.

The leadership said that to do otherwise would be “selfish”, due to the risk of spreading Covid.

There will still be celebrations in the city (details on this News Letter link) but they will be somewhat muted, with brethren and bands from elsewhere staying away.

Of the 54 ABOD marches notified with the Parades Commission, five are deemed “sensitive”.

Two are in Lurgan: ABOD Lurgan No1 Parent Branch Club with Portadown Defenders Flute Band, and ABOD Corcreeny Baker Club with Upper Bann Fusillers.

The others are in: Coleraine – the ABOD Killowen Mitchelburne Club with Ulster Protestant Boys; Dunloy – ABOD Dunloy Walker Club with Dunloy Accordion Band; and east Belfast – a whopping 250-man parade involving ABOD Belfast Browning Club, with bands from Ballymacarret and Whiterock.

Among the conditions placed on the latter parade is that “a single drum beat on a single side drum only is to be played between the junction of Bryson Street and the Newtownards Road and the junction of Pitt Place and the Newtownards Road” (a rather specific instruction, since the distance from Pitt Place to Bryson Street is perhaps only 15 metres).

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