Drum rolls and gender roles in Protestant marching bands in Belfast

Abstract

Protestant marching bands in the North of Ireland are seen as highly specific, gendered markers of popular sectarian culture. The bands are generally seen to be part of a symbolic vocabulary that can threaten public stability and order by using public spaces to articulate political dissatisfaction. There are those who use colour parties and uniforms to demonstrate the way in which quasi‐militaristic bands are used as a display of ethno‐political identification. This article will consider how these types of loyalist marching bands are also markers of political culture and barometers of locally controlled political power from an inter‐community perspective. Furthermore, it will establish that they are only one of a number of genres of band that march, pointing to areas in which the agency of community educators is effective. Finally, it will address the subtle processes of gender discrimination displayed in band membership, organization, patronage, instrumentation, access to resources and band groupies, through which women can be publicly subordinated within working‐class Protestant culture.