Séamas O'Reilly: The Twelfth of July — and the North's complexities

'Flattening the complexity of the six counties’ divisions into religious lines has always been a bugbear of mine — not least because it’s so difficult to avoid'

People watch the burning of the loyalist Corcrain bonfire in Portadown, Co Armagh, to usher in the Eleventh night ahead of the Twelfth commemorations.

Last week, Green Party TD Paul Costelloe suggested that the 12th of July should be designated an all-island holiday, as a gesture of goodwill to the unionist tradition, perhaps even a reconciliatory olive branch for a future shared Ireland. 

Reaction was swift and, it should be said, not particularly glowing.