Just to expand a tad on what Alison said, the Brits imposed a Parades Commission on Northern Ireland a few years ago (before the Good Friday Agreement) to act as a non-partisan adjudicator of problems caused in the so-called "marching season". Both sides have their parades, but the Prods really march their socks off, with between 2,000 and 3,000 parades in any one summer).

Last week the Parades Commission denied an application from the Prods to march a provocative route in Belfast, and the Prods were a bit more grown up about that knock-back than they seem to be about Drumcree eqch year. In response to the Belfast decision, representatives of a Catholic community in Derry, through which the Prods like to march each year, gave an undertaking that there would be no demonstrations against this year's march. This was a generous gesture, because when the parades pass close to communities that don't want them, they are provocative. And the Derry community in question did not itself get any direct benefit from the preceding week's events in Belfast.

Thanks for drawing attention to a sign of hope, death by whisky. (And whose side are you on, spelling whisky like that? *BG* Mine's a Powers in the Brandywell...)