Mourne Young Defenders

The Orange Order has always relied on musical accompaniment since it's beginnings to guide them along the way. Traditionally lambegs where used and still are.By the 1800's musical bands started to crop up everywhere the Orange Order existed. These bands where heavily influenced by the British Army most likely started by soldiers returning from the various European wars. The fife and drum would have been the main instrument in the early days, later the flute would have replaced the fife. The Orange Order still walk with bands that pre date the 1850's. Churchill Flute band(possibley the oldest marching band in the world) where formed in 1835 and are still going strong in 2011. The basic flute band started to evolve into harmony Flute bands with different parts being played and bands competing in World Championships. By the late 1800s brass and silver bands where the flavours of the day with many existing bands crossing over from the trusty old flute, County Fermanagh has an abundance of Silver bands with almost every village and hamlet having one. Northern Ireland has a rich pipe band culture with amazingly more Pipe bands than Scotland. County Tyrone is famous for it's many pipe bands with bands in nearly every townland. Over a hundred Pipe bands still walk with the loyal orders,(check out the little village of Scarva on the 13th of July to see a beautiful display of pipe bands). In the country side of Ulster there is many little country type bands that look like they belong to a different era,many of these bands still play kettle drums and ancient Orange melodies which must be some of the oldest music in Ireland and Europe. Orange music has heavily influenced Modern Irish traditional music. By the 1950's accordion bands started to be the order of the day, more women and girls started to parade( they say there's nothing nicer than hearing an old Orange melody being played on an Accordion).By the 1970's and the start of the troubles young Protestants from the west of Scotland and Ulster started to play their instruments with more passion and with a much louder volume which was reflective of the situation these young men were witnessing on the streets. These band initially gained a bad reputation with the very conservative Orange Order. The media labelled them (maybe unfairly) as" Kick thePope bands". The bands themselves called this musical phenomena Blood and thunder.there are now over 300 hundred Blood and thunder bands in Northern Ireland alone. These bands have now completely evolved,with musical and marching ability of the highest order.There's are many different styles of B and T,with jig style being very popular in North Antrim.these bands play a wide range of music ranging from Orange music to film themes. Currently the band scene in Ulster is the largest youth movement in Europe with up to 15 bands starting per year. As we can see from the clip, (Mourne Young Defenders a band that started from Blood and Thunder and are now one of the finest Melody bands in country) how the band scene has evolved from 200 years of marching history.