Belfast residents hope not to batten down the hatches so tightly this year, writes Fionola Meredith
I haven't got a lot on this week. No morning cappuccino. No lunchtime trip to the gym. No delicious sticky brownies from the deli. No friendly bookshop to dilly-dally in. No bacchanalian excess at my favourite nightclub. All these small pleasures will be denied me. Why? Well, almost everywhere in Belfast will be closed during the period of the "Twelfth" holiday, leaving her non-parading and non-protesting citizens in a state of limbo. It may not be an infringement of our civil or political liberties to forego these sweeteners of daily existence, but their absence certainly makes for a tedious week of disrupted routines and bored thumb-twiddling.
In previous years, the widespread unrest, violence and disorder associated with the marching season meant the priority was rushing home early from work and battening down the hatches before trouble erupted on the streets.
These were times when there was an almost palpable sense of disquiet in the air - parents felt too frightened to take their children to the park on hot summer days, and the shops were sold out of bread by 3 p.m. (Although two years ago I do remember setting out with grim determination to my Tai Chi class - located, unfortunately, close to serious disturbances at the interface Cluan Place area in East Belfast. I had to cross two heavily fortified police road-blocks to get there, surely something Confucius never had to put up with.)
While the potential for tensions to spill over into trouble remains at flash-point areas such as Ardoyne in north Belfast, the relative calm of the 2003 marching season gives rise to hopes that this year will also prove largely free from disturbance. Benign local news headlines - "Drumcree security scaled down"; "Parade passes without incident"; "Parade passes off peacefully" - contribute to the sense of tentative optimism.
So now it's less likely to be a rioting mob sending us scurrying home to spend the week pottering resentfully in the garden. (Ironically, we'd normally be delighted to have this oasis of free time stretching out before us, but because it's imposed by others, it rankles.) We're grumpily sipping wine on the back doorstep simply because there's nothing else to do. And no-one else around to do it with: although the desperate flood of cars, planes and trains which used to leave Northern Ireland in their thousands during the July holiday has slackened to a steady flow, there's noticeably fewer people about in Belfast. Most of my friends have already decamped to Donegal.
But some people welcome the enforced holiday that the Twelfth brings. One local (nationalist) businessman told me: "The 12th of July today is like Sundays used to be when I was a child - everywhere's shut, nothing happening at all. But that's good for people like me, because it gives me a break from thinking about my work. I can relax and switch off, knowing that I'm not falling behind or missing out on business - because everybody else's premises are closed too."
And of course the weather plays its part too. Especially in recent years, hearts have collectively sunk when the sun has shone in July. Elsewhere, warm summery weather means rolled-up shirtsleeves and an extra spring in one's step. In parade-season Northern Ireland though, it means the increased risk of sectarian violence flaring up, as large crowds form on the streets and tensions simmer ever higher.
But there are growing signs that there's (cultural) life in the Northern Irish summer beyond parades and protests. It was recently announced that Belfast City Council has joined with the Royal Opera House to transport Covent Garden to Belfast's Botanic Gardens. "A Night At The Opera" on Tuesday, July 13th, will see Puccini's epic, Tosca, broadcast via satellite from the Royal Opera House in London to a giant screen on the Great Lawn at the Botanic Gardens. Like last year's début event, the performance is being screened simultaneously in the Covent Garden Piazza, Canary Wharf, the Capital City Academy in Brent, London, and the Center Parcs resort in Nottingham.
The evening is billed as "an opportunity for local opera lovers to enjoy a magical performance of one of the world's favourite operas for free" (or, 'Thank God, there's something else to do other than paint my toenails - again - let's get 'round there fast.") Apparently, the decision to stage a second "Night At The Opera" follows the success of last year, when more people watched the performance relayed to Belfast than at any of the other sites.
The army helicopters are back overhead, and the threat of sectarian strife is never far away. But at least now there's an alternative to the stultifying ennui which hangs over Northern Ireland in July. Opera revellers will have to go straight home after the performance, though. All the decent bars and coffee shops will be shut.