‘When St Patrick crossed the Boyne’: Irish parading traditions in New Zealand

Abstract

This paper explores the parading culture between Catholic and Protestant Irish through the Loyal Orange Institution and the Hibernian Australasian Catholic Benefit Society in the late 19th and early 20th century New Zealand. The focus is from a social and cultural historical perspective.

The rituals and symbolism used in these parades will be discussed and the ways in which these heightened tension and conflict in both communities struggling to maintain their respective identities. In their transfer to a New Zealand setting some aspects of this parading culture meant that the celebrations after the parade drew in the wider community.

Overall the two strands of Irish culture and their corresponding religious beliefs helped to consolidate view of the Two Irelands-one Catholic and one Protestant.