Sketches of the Marching Season

Abstract

It had been a cold spring in Ulster. Yet by early April throughout the Protestant working-class housing estates of the province the sounds of marching feet, of fife and drum could once again be heard. New skins were being stretched taut across drum heads, snares tightened and tuned for outside performance. Flags were unfurled once again after the long winter, uniforms cleaned and badges and belts polished ready for the first parades of a new marching season. A hundred practice halls across the North resonated with sharp volleys of triplets and paradiddles from a colourful army of aspiring drummers.