Can't See This Parade Without Crying

Somme 90th Anniversary march #3
Originally uploaded by Robby Garbett [lawntffoto].

Life is something we barely comprehend. At its best, art tries to understand life.

A respected Flickr acquaintance in Northern Ireland has posted photos which carry a lot of meaning for me, even though I don't understand everything they symbolize-- to me, and even less what they mean to others. They are a snapshot of a complicated story; it's right to try to hold it all somehow; and right to share that complexity with the world.

Here's how I feel: The North has been trapped in time, even more so than the rest of Ireland. And it is poised to change very, very quickly. Life in this beautiful corner of Ireland will not be the same in a decade, with all the good and bad things that entails.

Men with fife and drum march past SUVs. Communities that have mistrusted one another for centuries do their thing, again. Maybe they hold off this year. Maybe one day, they will forget entirely what they used to be.

We in my mother's family were Jewish, before we weren't anymore. It all worked out fine, in spite of that Jewish-sounding surname..until a Holocaust memorial made things undeniable. That's the other side of the family.

Something of me came from Ulster, left Cavan; and was left again in Belfast.

I don't know the past. But I can tell you the future: One day, in Northern Ireland, there will be no marchers. There will be no opposition. There will be no one to remember this battle in World War I; no one to remember any long-ago life or death. Everything we love and everything that irritates the heck out of us will be gone. Vanished like a dream.

...gaté gaté paragaté...

Conmemorations keep an event alive: the conquest of Ireland; valor and slaughter on a French battlefield; the life and death of a beloved teacher.

How many lives are gone, remembered by no one? How many mornings, washing dishes, walking out into the cool air of a new day; how many evenings watching the fire, feeding the cows, finding a warm bed until dawn? Do you know anything about your great-great parents? Anything at all? And what of your life? Will anyone remember? You might end up a name on a piece of paper, a little genealogical entry, should anyone down the road think to capture your life as a bit of data.

Say you do create something. No matter how grand it is, one day, your brilliant poems; the quilts you pieced; the buildings you built; the books you wrote; will be gone, gone, gone.

...parasamgate...

This tiny personal life, with its tiny personal concerns, is so precious, so irrelevant, so approximately-nonexistent in the great span of time. This is not a reason to give up. This is a reason to live fully, greedily, savoring a wonderful meal of passing moments.

The world of twenty years ago is gone. The world of twenty minutes ago is gone. It was so complete and so beautiful, from what I recall.

The thing that keeps me crying about these pictures is not politics; I know who I'm supposed to be by birth and affiliation. It's that these men are
just
so
beautiful.

And every parade, every heartfelt demonstration of what we love, is over. So soon.

Robby Garbett's commentary is excerpted below.

...bodhi svaha!

Somme 90th Anniversary march #1
Originally uploaded by Robby Garbett [lawntffoto].

This series of pictures was taken this evening in the village where I live. For those of you not familiar with the politics and culture of Northern Ireland we are now in what is known as the 'marching season' when bands formed from one sector of the community march to commemorate key events in Loyalist history culminating in the celebration of the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne July 12th 1689 when the protestant King William defeated the catholic King James. The season is a time when, for some at least, the long term religious, cultural and political tensions surface - some years there are riots and an increase in sectarian violence.

So for some, these marches are far from neutral. They are symbols of a triumphalist, dominant and aggressive section of the community. From that point of view these pictures can be interpreted, focusing as they do on youth as part of this tradition, as a critique of an ingrained system that perpetuates difference and even intolerance. And that does happen.

But that would, to my mind, be a very narrow reading. This year on the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme there is some sign of change.

The anniversary is important in Ireland because two divisions of Irish soldiers: the Ulster division formed mainly of men from the north and the Irish Division formed of volunteers from Ireland's other provinces (Ireland was nominally if reluctantly [and violently] part of the British Empire in 1916). In common with most other formations of the Empire and French troops on 1st July 1916, the Irish divisions suffered horrendous casualties. The social impact in the British Army was compounded by the recruitment strategy that had grouped men from the same towns and even factories together into units on the assumption they would fight better together. But the outmoded and flawed tactics of the British High Command meant that these close knit units were decimated. This naturally had a massive impact on those who survived. This was especially true or the Ulstermen drawn from a small community that historically had seen itself as a beleagured minority.

The anniversary is therefore an important one to remember. In the years following the first world war, civil war in the new Republic of Ireland meant that it was unpopular to remember the part played by Irishmen in the world war. But this year there will be events to commemorate their part (and their sacrifices) - something rare if not unique. At the same time news stories suggest that leaders within the Orange Order are making efforts to limit the tensions around the marches by negotiating routes that don't provoke nationalist communities.

So for me, there is another interpretation. These marches are militaristic. But they are an important part of cultural life and can exist more peacefully than they have in the recent past.

I've certainly become more aware of the complexity around the marches. And if you see them at face value you see pride and colour and a meaningful remembrance of lives given in war.

The tensions and ambiguities are still there. I was challenged by one of the marchers, while others were clearly suspicious.

But I'm glad I took them. It's a complicated history. In the past I have been tempted to see it in one dimensional terms, somehow taking pictures has helped me to look deeper.

Thank you, Robby.