The most colourful book to arrive on this desk for a long time, comes from Margaret McNulty of the Institute of Irish Studies in Queen's University, Belfast, and concerns the many organisations who revel in marching with banners (Displaying Faith, £8.50stg). Yes, Orangemen have the greater part of the banner flaunting season, but others can give them a run for their money, if not in numbers, at least in vividness.
The author Neil Jarman puts it more delicately: "The popular political and commemorative culture of Northern Ireland is intensely visual". He includes in this what he calls the "spatially anchored displays", i.e. the painted kerbstones, and gable-ends. He explains how the banner tradition has built up for centuries - well before the Orange Order was founded. And between 1990 and 1998 he has taken over 100 photos in full colour, which jump out of the page at you. Far back the tradition goes: there was a representation of Adam and Eve at the Corpus Christi procession of the Dublin guilds in 1498 - and they are still a feature on banners today. Nor is marching with banners an Irish speciality. In the 19th century in England many societies and unions and clubs did similarly. And it's not so long ago since, in Europe, banners and flags and processions seemed to go on and on and on.
Jarman's photos include not only Orange organisations but other groupings from the Ribbonmen, inheritors of the Defenders tradition, the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Irish National Foresters. Both the latter, he says, "developed as a blend of political organisation and self-help movement, drawing on the British tradition of friendly societies, providing medical and funeral insurance for its members". The AOH claim descent from Rory Og O'More, a leader of the 1641 rebellion against English rule. The greens have colourful banners with a message - Henry Joy McCracken, William Orr, for example. Trade Union banners are shown. SIPTU, Belfast, has James Connolly on its 1990 banner. Republicans have banners for the Maze hunger-strikers and for Mairead Farrell, shot dead by the SAS in Gibraltar.
On the Orange side, King William is, of course the dominant figure and Queen Victoria still, with the caption "The secret of England's greatness", hands out a Bible to a dark foreigner, Indian or African. Can't get it all in. Buy the book. It tells you a lot. Y