History’s Walls: Northern Ireland

Morning comes early to Northern Ireland every July 12. Not long after first light, men in bowler hats leave their flats in Belfast or their little homes in the countryside, some of them wearing great orange sashes that designate them as grandees in the Protestant-only Orange Order. Soon, well-muscled men will begin hoisting impossibly huge drums on their torsos, and soon great banners will be unfurled, bearing such legends as: “No Surrender!” and “Remember 1690!” Young...