The Twelfth - The Twelfth Outside Northern Ireland

The Twelfth Outside Northern Ireland

Although mostly a Northern Ireland event, the Twelfth is also celebrated in other countries with strong links to Ulster or a history of settlement by Irish Protestants. Outside of Northern Ireland, The Twelfth is widely commemorated in Scotland. In England and Wales Orange marches are uncommon and Orange Order membership is found primarily in the Merseyside region, though numbers are still small. Marches here tend to be held a week or so before the Twelfth, due to the number of bands and lodges who travel to Northern Ireland to march there. The Liverpool lodges parade both in the city and in the seaside resort of Southport on the 12th July.

There are also Twelfth marches in Canada and Australia. As the longest consecutively held parade in North America (starting in 1821), the Twelfth March was the largest parade in Toronto until the 1970s when thousands of Orangemen would march in front of tens of thousands of spectators. At the time, the Orange Order held such sway that membership in the Orange Order was an unspoken pre-requisite for holding civic office. However, the march's popularity has drastically diminished in recent years, as only about 500 people participate in modern Orange parades, making its size a mere fraction of other parades in Toronto such as Carnival, Khalsa Day, and Gay Pride. Twelfth parades were also common in Eastern Ontario and the Niagara region, which were heavily populated by descendants of Loyalists from the American colonies who fled after American independence. 'Orangemen's Day' is still a significant holiday in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, where it is an official provincial paid-holiday. Parades were also formerly held in New Zealand on the Twelfth.

Until the Partition of Ireland, the Twelfth was celebrated by Protestants in many parts of Ireland, but the shrinking of the Protestant population in what is now the Republic of Ireland has greatly lessened the number held. The only remaining yearly parade is in Rossnowlagh and was held on the Twelfth until the 1970s, when it was moved to the weekend before.

In July 2010, former Tánaiste Michael McDowell said that the Twelfth should be made a national holiday in the Republic of Ireland as well as in Northern Ireland.