Bands, Funding and Hypocrisy – by Michael Lagan

Having been a member of a band, a board member, and a tutor of flute I’ve some experience of the reality of bands in NEI, especially when it comes to republican and nationalist flute bands.  In recent days it has come to light that the Ulster Scots Agency, or Tha Boord o Ulster Scotch gave funding to two Loyalist bands who attended the commemoration of Brian Robinson.  The Ulster-Scots Agency is jointly funded by the Department for Communities in NEI and the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural, and Gaeltacht Affairs in the South and is responsible to the North/South Ministerial Council.

So why oh why is it funding two Loyalist bands with such a large amount? The aims of the Ulster-Scots Agency are – “to promote the study, conservation, development, and use of Ulster-Scots as a living language; to encourage and develop the full range of its attendant culture; and to promote an understanding of the history of the Ulster-Scots.”  What have Loyalist bands and Brian Robinson got to do with Ulster-Scots?

It wasn’t simply funding of a meagre amount that was allocated to these two bands, but £40,000 in all was handed over in funding to two bands.  Now it has emerged that 16 bands that took part in the memorial to Loyalist sectarian killer Brian Robinson on the 3rd of September received Covid-19 support grants.  £30,500 was shared out between the 16 bands with zero due diligence carried out by any department or by the Ulster-Scots Agency itself to find out where any of this public money was going, how it was being used, or why it was needed…especially during the Covid-19 pandemic when no one was supposed to be congregating in large groups.

What may grind the gears is peace money was coming from the South in massive amounts to fund Loyalist bands.  Peace money! Funding Loyalism to march around the country provoking sectarianism. In fact, the Ulster-Scots Agency set up a fund specifically for the South which provides support of up to 90% of eligible costs – up to a maximum grant of €10,000.

When I look back at my time in the band I remember just how hard it was to get a grant for anything.  One only has to look at a Loyalist band to realise just how much is spent on uniforms and instruments.  One uniform alone for a Loyalist band, especially if they wear a tunic can cost upward of £1,000 for one bandsman.  Imagine that 30 times over for a large band and that’s before instruments, flags, and banners.  

To get funding the band couldn’t be affiliated with any organisation (paramilitary) or carry any flag or banner depicting anything connected to said organisations.  The band I was in ended up with a few hundred pounds with which we bought t-shirts and a raincoat.  We had to supply our own trousers, beret, and boots/shoes and we fundraised our instruments.  At that point, little did we know Loyalist bands were receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds from not only Stormont but also from the Southern schemes which no Irish republican band could get access to.  In the end, many Irish republican bands gave up trying to source funding from the South.

Why then, are these bands getting funding while marching in a Loyalist parade memorialising a Loyalist killer, and have done in recent years?  More to the point, why are the same people who were up in arms about the Wolfe Tones, not up in arms about publicly funded Loyalist bands commemorating a sectarian Loyalist killer?  And even more to the point…why is an agency set up to promote the Ulster-Scots ‘language’ handing over £40,000 in funding to 2 Loyalist bands?  We wait with bated breath.

The unionist victims’ group South East Fermanagh Foundation said in a statement before Saturday’s march – “And to all who will participate in the parade or those who would condone it, you have zero moral justification to call out republican terrorists when they roll out their coat-trailing shows of terrorism idolatry.”