Jeffrey Magee lived in Maynooth, Co Kildare, for the 12 years he worked for Intel before he returned to the hills of Co Donegal to take over the family farm outside Raphoe.Magee (36), the worshipful master of the local Orange Lodge, was on Saturday one of up to 6,000 people who attended the Order’s popular parade – a “demonstration” in the organisation’s terminology – in Rossnowlagh.Like the majority of Orange July 12th parades on the other side of the Border, the Rossnowlagh event is peaceful, friendly and filled with families and children – far removed from bonfires that plague the annual Battle of the Boyne celebration elsewhere.“It’s part of our heritage and culture, I’ve been doing it since I’ve been a child,” Magee says. “My uncle and dad are here as well. They all played in the band. People join the band first, before joining the Orange.”A bagpiper, Magee says he “took a break” during his much-enjoyed years in Co Kildare. “When I moved back home again, I started playing again. You try to keep the young ones who are coming in taught,” he says.Everyone in Intel knew of his Church of Ireland background and membership of the Orange. “They were the best. No one had a problem with it. We all got on,” Magee says.Members of the Magheraveely Flute Band from Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh, make their way through the dunes onto the beach following the Orange Order parade in Rossnowlagh, Co Donegal, on Saturday. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien/The Irish Times He explains that his rank in the lodge has more to do with the fact the role is held by people for three years at a time. “Maybe I pulled the short straw more than anything,” he says. “We share the work. People do it for the three years, and then pass it on to someone else. So all the older guys had their go at the job. Some of them, maybe, have had a second, or third go at it.”The Rossnowlagh parade is held on the Saturday before the 12th and increasingly attracts large numbers of bands and supporters from Northern Ireland, not just from the smaller number of lodges in the Irish Republic.Jeffery Magee seen at the Orange Order's annual parade in Rossnowlagh, Co Donegal. For David Mahon, the order’s Donegal County grand master, Rossnowlagh is an example of co-operation, not division, long welcomed by Catholic neighbours in the seaside village. “We have a good relationship with everybody,” Mahon says. “We borrow land from them for the day. They give us fields for parking and different things. They have all been really helpful to us over the years, and still are.”Crowds begin to gather from midmorning, including many members of lodges in Northern Ireland, where friendships are renewed over coffees, burgers and ice-creams in the summer heat. Local gardaí direct traffic.Samuel Parker from Larne arrives by mobility scooter at the assembly field beside St John's Parish Church before taking part in the Orange Order parade in Rossnowlagh. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien/The Irish Times The Orange Order parade in Rossnowlagh, Co Donegal. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien/The Irish Times “We may be separated by a political border, a political boundary, but we are one people united in our love of the reformed Protestant faith and our proud history, culture, and Orange traditions,” Mahon says.The Rossnowlagh demonstration has been held since the 1960s on the Saturday before the 12th, which marks the victory of King James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1691.Despite the family air, politics are never far away, even if most of those who gather happily queue for Mr Whippy ice-creams rather than listen to the speeches.In his speech, Harold Henning, the grand master of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, seizes upon the sectarian abuse directed last year at Fine Gael presidential candidate Heather Humphreys over her links to the Orange.The controversy showed “the intolerance that still exists” in the Republic of Ireland, Henning tells southern members of the Orange. “It was shameful, brethren, what you had to go through at that time.”David Jordan (left) and James Johnston from Derry on the beach following the Orange Order parade in Rossnowlagh. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien/The Irish Times