Drums, flutes and the tramp of marching feet resounded across Northern Ireland last week in the latest round of protests against the protocol which imposes checks on goods crossing the Irish Sea as part of the Brexit deal. On Thursday, they paraded in Castlederg, on Friday in east and north Belfast, and on Saturday night they were due in Derry, columns of loyalist order bands, unionist politicians, activists and citizens, marching behind union jacks proclaiming their Britishness.
Such parades begin before dusk and climax with speeches as night falls, as if to match warnings of creeping political oblivion. Northern Ireland will hold an election for the Stormont assembly on 5 May, which many marchers consider a proxy battle not just for the protocol but Northern Ireland’s position in the UK. They fear the state’s existence, and with it their culture and identity, is in jeopardy. Promises from Downing Street last week to “reform” the protocol and delay border checks did not assuage unease – unionists feel they have heard it before.
