Public Protest and Popular Style: Resistance from the Right in Northern Ireland and South Boston

Popular political demonstrations often feature the use of theatrical and symbolic actions and artifacts. These are drawn from a repertoire that resembles and overlaps with festive public events. In this article I examine parades, murals, and other popular forms of public protest in Northern Ireland, where I have been conducting field research since 1991. I compare these to demonstrations of resistance in South Boston to school busing and the inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the St. Patrick's Day parade. Regardless of the political allegiances or intentions of the protesters, they tend to draw upon the same repertoire of images and actions for public display. This results in a genuinely popular style of protest. In the cases of political resistance from the Right, the use of popular styles of protest distinguishes the protesters along class lines from those whose rule they are supporting, [politicalprotest, Northern Ireland, street theater, resistance, public display events]