That’s it: the end of the ‘mad month’ when all the worst elements of unionism and Orangeism are on display for the edification of the public.

Still, it’s nothing like as appallingly offensive and provocative as it used to be. Damage is mostly now self-inflicted. It’s primarily unionist districts that suffer the toxic fumes and particles from gargantuan bonfires and the tons of rubbish left by drunken revellers.

Thanks to the Parades Commission, it’s also mainly unionist districts that Orange marches and their followers prance through, leaving a trail of garbage their spectators strew.

Thankfully the month passed off peacefully, though not if you were a migrant living in districts dominated by loyalist gangsters.

Loyalist opposition to the GAA and ‘Irish’ culture has much to do with a losers’ psyche, built by successive leaders of unionism - Tom Kelly

Brian Feeney: Unionists have no choice but to engage with change

Unionists no doubt take comfort from these traditional performances of another peak parading month as evidence that nothing has changed, but they know change has happened and will continue.

It’s not only the smaller turnouts and the reduced geographical spread but the visibly ageing diminished membership in Orange lodges out marching, and most obviously the absence of professional and middle class input to........

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