The week of the 12th

It's been a holiday week over here in Northern Ireland. The 12th of July is a big holiday over here. Not so much for celebration, but just that everyone has the 12th off and a few people will get the day after. It is also my father-in-laws mother's, Great Granny F, birthday, so we had a big BBQ with the FIL side of the family.

What is so special about the 12th you ask? I like to think of it as the Protestant "St. Patrick's Day." It's actually the Protestant celebration of the Battle of the Boyne. The Protestant William of Orange and his troops beat Catholic James II and his supporters. If you want more information about the holiday, wikipedia has a short synopsis on it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Twelfth They also call it parade season because the Protestant side of NI has a few other events they like to remind people about. This time of year used to be the most violent time because the parade marchers would deliberately march through heavily Catholic areas just to rub it in, like a big middle finger to the losers of the battle.  Bonfires are also a huge deal. They're made of old pallets and get up to 3 stories high. Those represent the old signal fires that used to be in the heavily Protestant areas. Granny F likes to leave the city at this time of year for that very reason, since there is a huge one right behind her house. Every year the districts of the Orange Order choose a town to have their big do for the 12th, next year it's here. I'm hoping to be in America next year to miss all the hoopla. It's usually a really long parade of bands and Order members and then speeches all day. The local band did come back to Tobermore around 5 and we got to see the end of the parade. O seemed to like it.

Such fierce pride in their history is something that is still foreign to me. They remind me of Confederate men not willing to admit that they lost the war. I haven't even seen many Americans with such burning passion for their Protestant history. I have my personal opinions on this, but I'm going to keep them to myself.  Now not all the Protestant's celebrate this holiday, in fact it was very quiet this year except for a smaller riot in West Belfast. Overall it's just a day off. I'm sure I'm not making sense, but I have a few pictures from my phone of the bonfire in Tobermore and the flute band.

Headed to Belfast tonight for a party and some Harry Potter tomorrow! Have a great week all.

A roaring bonfire.

The Tobermore flute band

oíche mhaith

Exploring the town of Tobermore

It's been a few days since my last blog and I wish I could say there has been loads of stuff going on to fill the time, but nope, not really. It's been a normal week, except with a little more sun. We went to the mother and toddler group Wednesday and Friday. There really hasn't been any headway with any of the moms. They still keep to themselves and have now started gossiping alot more about people they know. I have started to take a more aggressive approach with them, but I'm not sure if that is scaring them away or they really just don't like me or Americans. I am just going to keep going until either they warm up to me or a new group of moms come in. A lot of the kids will be leaving in September to go to preschool at the age of 3.

We also went to the playground on Thursday. If you want to have a better look at the town you can do Google street view of Tobermore, NI.  http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=tobermore&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Tobermore,+Magherafelt,+United+Kingdom&ll=54.811914,-6.706038&spn=0,0.076818&z=14&layer=c&cbll=54.811791,-6.706013&panoid=T9e0CYI5n4XEfYlHpxZpGA&cbp=12,205.4,,0,1.75
It looks like they took the pictures of the town around July 12th, if you don't now why that date is so special over here I will share in the future. Since it was around that date you will notice there are British flags and red, white, and blue banner . It is because Tobermore is a Protestant area in NI. I still need to look up the history of the town to tell you why. It just means you don't where anything that has the Irish flag or certain teams, for your own safety. Now it may sound like it would be unsafe, far from it. You just have to know the social rules. It would be like walking into a huge crowd of Yankee's fans wearing Red Sox gear and a Yankee's Suck. It's just common sense. Once I learn more about the history of Tobermore, I will definitely let you know. I can promise you some history lessons coming your way.  Below are pictures of the local park. It's down the lane and in the town of Tobermore.


This is what happens when you ask O to say "cheese"



Looking alot like Daddy.

This is an example of the kind of graffiti you would see in an British supported area. U.V.F is the Protestant side of the conflicts. There is a lot more to it, but it would be a huge paper. As mentioned, Tobermore is a very Protestant area.

The small Tobermore playground. The ground is spongy rubber tiles.

Looking through the tunnel.

There were some city workers cleaning up the park and O thought that the man raking was very interesting. Kept calling him, "mama", but it's good to know that right now she calls everyone mama, except me, I get "Mommy".

The impish grin says it all

On the swings.

Hope you all have a good weekend!

oíche mhaith