This weekend is traditionally one of the most dangerous and violent in the North, yet there will be Lambeg drums beating in Dublin's Phoenix Park. As the Orange marchers prepare to muster and the Drumcree stand-off continues, the President, Mrs McAleese, will be hosting entertainment in Aras an Uachtarain to mark the Twelfth of July, a milestone in Irish history according to a spokeswoman.
Some 130 guests, 85 per cent of them members of Orange Lodges in the Republic, will be at the Aras this evening to take some refreshment, view the Northern paintings of George Fleming, listen to Different Drums, a Northern group which plays everything from the Lambeg to the bodhran, to the Belfast Harp Orchestra and to Frank McGuinness reading from Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme.
Other guests, in an evening designed to focus on Orangeism as part of the President's round of differing faiths, include those interested in British/Irish history as well as the Adelaide Hospital Association and the Ulster Heritage Council. There will be no politicians, from North or South, and it is unlikely any Orangemen will abandon the Drumcree siege to attend, There will be no bonfires. After that, for a complete change of culture, the President is off to the Munster hurling final in Thurles tomorrow.