Orange Walk - Form of Parades

Form of Parades

All Orange walks include at least one lodge, with officers. The lodge will almost always be accompanied by a marching band, often a flute band but other parading band types include fife and drum, silver, brass and accordion. Walks may include dozens of lodges for major events such as the Twelfth, down to one lodge only. Elderly or infirm lodge members often travel the parade route in a vehicle such as a black taxi. It has become much more common in recent decades for members of Ladies' lodges to walk, although women are still massively outnumbered by men in most parades. Larger walks, especially on the Twelfth, may be headed by a figure on a white horse dressed as Boyne victor William of Orange. A few parades also include others in historical fancy dress or, more rarely, a float such as that constructed for the 1990 Twelfth celebrations. This represented the Mountjoy, the ship which lifted the Siege of Derry.