The Apprentice Boys of Derry have their headquarters in the Memorial Hall, just inside the city's historic walls and overlooking the Bogside. That's where new members of the organisation will be initiated today. It's a huge building with committee rooms, functions rooms, offices, a bar, and exhibition rooms teeming with artefacts and memorabilia associated with the organisation.
Pictures of former Apprentice Boys governors and other senior members adorn the walls. One such notable was John Ferguson, a Derry architect who was governor of the Boys in the 1870s. "He went to prison over some parades issue of the time," recalled local historian and Apprentice Boy Tony Crowe.
He'd have to check the records to root out the full details of the dispute, but whatever it was Mr Ferguson "took a fairly principled stand", said Mr Crowe. The more things change . . .
The two sides in dispute over another parade more than a century later, the Boys and the Bogside Residents' Group (BRG), while maintaining their general principles, have managed to find accommodation. Nobody has gone to prison. At least not so far. The current Apprentice Boys' governor, Mr Alistair Simpson, and Mr Donncha Mac Niallais, head of the BRG, say they don't want anyone, whether visiting loyalist or local nationalist, to end up in a cell this weekend.
Rather ruefully both sides acknowledge that there can be no guarantee of such a totally happy outcome to today's events. About 10,000 Apprentice Boys marching behind 150 bands, some of them of the distinctly "kick-the-Pope" variety, will converge on the city. Thousands of supporters will line the route to cheer them.
There will be no shortage of nationalists to take umbrage at the display of Union flags and the posturings of those bandsmen who dress in paramilitary-style uniforms. Unparliamentary comments will be exchanged between some of the marchers and some of the nationalist onlookers. Some things never change.
For instance, as the local parent clubs were setting off to parade the walls of Derry early last year a young nationalist observer raised his arms as if firing a rifle and "aimed" it at a young marcher he recognised, who was from the Protestant Waterside, across the Foyle. Later in the afternoon a Newtownabbey band dressed like the old UVF started jeering some of the onlookers and then, astonishingly, attacked them. Police and Apprentice Boys marshals tried to intervene, but this set the scene for more sporadic clashes between nationalists and loyalists, with the RUC attempting to keep them apart.
There have always been sectarian tensions that understandings or accommodations can't readily dispel. Which is why Mr Simpson yesterday warned loyalists intent on stirring it up to keep away from Derry. "For anyone who wishes to be in the city for any other reason than a family or shopping day out we would ask them to stay at home." Mr Martin McGuinness of Sinn Fein, in a message primarily aimed at nationalists, said everyone should act "responsibly" today. "I am sure that if all the people who may have reason to be in the vicinity of the march can maintain the discipline which has been displayed by nationalists throughout the loyal orders' marching season, then we will be able to look back on a trouble-free day."
Derry is no Drumcree. The mood is different in the city. In Derry there is accommodation; in Portadown there is confrontation. Orangemen are still maintaining a token protest at Drumcree, still intent on parading down the Garvaghy Road, and equally intent on refusing to negotiate with local nationalists. You'll hear varying reasons explaining why Derry is different. Mr Mac Niallais of the BRG puts it down to nationalist self-confidence. "In Portadown you have a visible manifestation of the Orange Order saying that Taigs are second-class citizens. You can't say that in Derry, where nationalists are in the majority. Unlike the Garvaghy Road, nationalists here don't feel intimidated by loyal order parades, although they may feel annoyed."
If the Drumcree parade had been forced down the Garvaghy Road, it's highly unlikely that the BRG would have reached an accommodation on any Apprentice Boys' parade today. "The Orange Order will have to treat the people of the Garvaghy Road with respect if they expect to have their day in Derry," said Mr Mac Niallais.
The Apprentice Boys believe that because they engaged with the city by explaining what their history and culture is about, and by staging the Maiden City Festival this week, they won the propaganda battle.
Discipline was also a factor. Where the Orange Order split over Drumcree, there was always only one voice from the Apprentice Boys. And his voice was generally moderate. "I have been governor for the past five years, and this is my last year. I wanted everything to go well for the Apprentice Boys, and for my city," Mr Simpson said. "It has been our desire for some time that the Apprentice Boys' parades should be welcomed and enjoyed by all the communities in the city. Over the past few weeks there appears to have been an increasing acceptance that this city is big enough to accommodate all traditions," he added.