Winning while losing: The Apprentice Boys of Derry walk their beat

Ethno-territorial conflict is a common feature of human affairs, and efforts to understand and mitigate its impacts require an examination of how peoples, communities, and nations “lose;” specifically, what happens as and after they lose in terms of their relationship with place and space, and the associated effects on self and community identity. This article examines recent Apprentice Boys of Derry parades in Northern Ireland as a mechanism by which a community that has lost control of symbolically significant space seeks to demonstrate an ongoing attachment to critical places. Twice-yearly parades allow Protestants to narrate their experience in the town of Derry/Londonderry as a victory, despite circumstantial evidence which suggests otherwise. The ability to claim victory through parading provides members of the Apprentice Boys organization with a raison d'etre, and serves in place of an aggressive agenda to regain control of territorial icons. The article draws upon extensive fieldwork, including interviews with key figures on both sides of the sectarian divide, and explores the nature of the community and the evolution of its parades as Protestants have lost influence in the town since the onset of Northern Ireland's Troubles. It suggests that, in the study of ethno-territorial conflicts, attention should be paid to the tactics of those who lose hegemony, as their actions affect the potential for conflict management and the likelihood of ongoing strife.     

The Bang Beggars of Derry city: borough policing in Londonderry,c.1832–70

Was Derry's independent city police force wholly inadequate, was it just inefficient for the suppression of riots; or was it the demonstration of politico-religious partisanship that ensured the force's abolition in 1870? This paper will attempt to explore and answer these three questions. It will also look at the borough force in some detail, examining issues with regard to the force's pay, discipline, its duties and conditions of service. It will not attempt to analyse Derry's nineteenth-century riots or the political and sectarian issues surrounding these riots, except where aspects of these directly affected the borough police.