A Twelfth everyone can enjoy....

The Twelfth is and always has been a multi-faceted event. There is an element of historical commemoration. There is a religious dimension. For some it may even be a political event but - with all due respect to my political friends and colleagues - most Twelfth speeches have only a tenuous relationship to serious politics. Above all, the Twelfth is a carnival and a great family day out. It is a day to enjoy the colour, the spectacle and the music of the greatest and the best folk festival in the British Isles, if not western Europe. It certainly puts Morris dancing in the shade.  Besides being a cultural event, the Twelfth is very much a social event. It is an opportunity to meet friends and renew old acquaintances and an occasion to exchange news and to chat.

To those born into the Orange tradition, this is merely to state the obvious. However, because of the unhappy events of recent years and the attendant adverse publicity, others may not appreciate the reality so readily. 

This year's Twelfth was perfectly idyllic: beautiful weather, an absence of violence and tension and huge crowds enjoying the marvellous spectacle. It was the best Twelfth we have had in a decade because life in Northern Ireland is best served by a celebratory, not a contentious Twelfth.

The Ulster-Scots Agency cannot claim credit for the splendid weather. Nor can the Agency claim credit for the fact that people right across the community behaved sensibly and responsibly. However, few would deny that there was a new and welcome spirit of tolerance and understanding abroad this year. 

The President of the Irish Republic, Mary McAleese, recently observed: "Without compromising those things we hold dear, we have an obligation and an opportunity to build a culture of respect for difference and of relaxed curiosity about what we have in common as well as what separates us."

This year's Twelfth festivities were accompanied by a variety of festivals, summer schools and events exploring the vibrancy of Orange culture, acknowledging Orangeism's contribution to our rich cultural diversity and explaining its meaning to those outside the Orange family and from different cultural traditions. I am conscious of events of this nature in Cookstown, Kilkeel, Markethill, Shankill Road, Belfast, Limavady, Carnmoney, Hillsborough and Newtownards.

Through the Ulster-Scots Agency's support for many of these admirable ventures, the Agency played a meaningful part in fostering the spirit of tolerance and understanding that was abroad this year. 

The Ulster-Scots Agency is particularly proud to be associated with the imaginative programmes of events devised by the Schomberg Society in Kilkeel, Mid-Armagh Community Network's Henry Acheson Summer School in Markethill and Greater Shankill Community's Battle To Bagpipes Festival.

The Ulster-Scots Agency is deeply conscious of the important contribution these programmes make to securing wider acceptance of cultural diversity, the basis of a genuinely plural society, a society in which all can enjoy, celebrate and approach our differences in a spirit of, in Mary McAleese's phrase, "relaxed curiosity".

 Along with other funders and organisations, the Agency is most delighted to be associated with the highly acclaimed Maiden City Festival in Londonderry every August.  Over the last five or so years, an annual demonstration has developed into a full festival of Ulster Scots and associated cultures.  The city is full of visitors enjoying and understanding what the Apprentice Boys have to offer for all the family and everyone of every hue.  This is the way ahead.

Many will be intrigued by the professional, bright and interesting programme for the Maiden City Festival. Lectures, summer school, bluegrass concerts, historical cruises and more, all there to inform the curious and to celebrate a culture of a sizable section of the Ulster community.