Since the 1690s commemorations had been held throughout Ireland celebrating key dates in the Williamite War such as the Battle of Aughrim, Battle of the Boyne, Siege of Derry and the second Siege of Limerick.[22][23] These followed a tradition started in Elizabethan England of celebrating key events in the Protestant calendar.[22] By the 1740s there were organisations holding parades in Dublin such as the Boyne Club and the Protestant Society, both seen as forerunners to the Orange Order.[22]
Throughout the 1780s, sectarian tension had been building in County Armagh, largely due to the relaxation of the Penal Laws.[24] Here the number of Protestants and Catholics (in what was then Ireland's most populous county) were of roughly equal number, and competition between them to rent patches of land near markets was fierce.[24] Drunken brawls between rival gangs had by 1786 become openly sectarian.[24] These gangs eventually reorganised as the Protestant Peep o' Day Boys and the Catholic Defenders, with the next decade in County Armagh marked by fierce sectarian conflict between both groups, which escalated and spread into neighbouring counties.[24]
In September 1795, at a crossroads known as "The Diamond" near Loughgall, Defenders and Protestant Peep o' Day Boys gathered to fight each other.[24] This initial stand-off ended without a battle when the priest who accompanied the Defenders persuaded them to seek a truce, after a group called the "Bleary Boys" came from County Down to reinforce the Peep o' Day Boys.[24] When a contingent of Defenders from County Tyrone arrived on 21 September, however, they were "determined to fight".[24] The Peep o' Day Boys quickly regrouped and opened fire on the Defenders.[24] According to William Blacker, the battle was short and the Defenders suffered "not less than thirty" deaths.[24]
After the battle had ended, the Peep o' Days marched into Loughgall, and in the house of James Sloan they founded the Orange Order, which was to be a Protestant defence association made up of lodges.[24] The principal pledge of these lodges was to defend "the King and his heirs so long as he or they support the Protestant Ascendancy".[24] At the start the Orange Order was a "parallel organisation" to the Defenders in that it was a secret oath-bound society that used passwords and signs.[24]
One of the very few landed gentry who joined the Orange Order at the outset, William Blacker, was unhappy with some of the outcomes of the Battle of the Diamond.[24] He says that a determination was expressed to "driving from this quarter of the county the entire of its Roman Catholic population", with notices posted warning them "to Hell or Connaught".[24] Other people were warned by notices not to inform on local Orangemen or "I will Blow your Soul to the Low hils of Hell And Burn the House you are in".[24] Within two months, 7,000 Catholics had been driven out of County Armagh.[24] According to Lord Gosford, the governor of Armagh:
It is no secret that a persecution is now raging in this country... the only crime is... profession of the Roman Catholic faith. Lawless banditti have constituted themselves judges... and the sentence they have denounced... is nothing less than a confiscation of all property, and an immediate banishment.[24]
A former Grand Master of the Order, also called William Blacker, and a former County Grand Master of Belfast, Robert Hugh Wallace have questioned this statement, saying whoever the Governor believed were the "lawless banditti", they could not have been Orangemen as there were no lodges in existence at the time of his speech.[25] According to historian Jim Smyth:
Later apologists rather implausibly deny any connection between the Peep-o'-Day Boys and the first Orangemen or, even less plausibly, between the Orangemen and the mass wrecking of Catholic cottages in Armagh in the months following 'the Diamond' – all of them, however, acknowledge the movement's lower-class origins.[26]
The Order's three main founders were James Wilson (founder of the Orange Boys), Daniel Winter and James Sloan.[27] The first Orange lodge was established in nearby Dyan, and its first grandmaster was James Sloan of Loughgall.[28] Its first-ever marches were to celebrate the Battle of the Boyne and they took place on 12 July 1796 in Portadown, Lurgan and Waringstown.[29]
United Irishmen rebellion
The Society of United Irishmen was formed by liberal Presbyterians and Anglicans in Belfast in 1791. It sought reform of the Irish Parliament, Catholic Emancipation and the repeal of the Penal Laws. By the time the Orange Order was formed, the United Irishmen had become a revolutionary group advocating an independent Irish republic that would "Unite Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter". United Irishmen activity was on the rise, and the government hoped to thwart it by backing the Orange Order from 1796 onward.[30]
Irish nationalist historians Thomas A. Jackson and John Mitchel argued that the government's goal was to hinder the United Irishmen by fomenting sectarianism, thereby creating disunity and disorder under pretence of "passion for the Protestant religion".[31] Mitchel wrote that the government invented and spread "fearful rumours of intended massacres of all the Protestant people by the Catholics".[32] Historian Richard R Madden wrote that "efforts were made to infuse into the mind of the Protestant feelings of distrust to his Catholic fellow-countrymen".[32] MP Thomas Knox wrote in August 1796 that "As for the Orangemen, we have rather a difficult card to play... we must to a certain degree uphold them, for with all their licentiousness, on them we must rely for the preservation of our lives and properties should critical times occur".[30][33]
The United Irishmen saw the Defenders as potential allies, and between 1794 and 1796 they formed a coalition.[34] Despite some seeing the Defenders as "ignorant and poverty-stricken houghers and rick-burners",[citation needed] the United Irishmen were indebted to the Armagh disturbances as the Orangemen had scattered politicised Catholics throughout the country and encouraged Defender recruitment, creating a proto-army for the United Irishmen to utilise.[24]
The United Irishmen launched a rebellion in 1798. In Ulster, most of the United Irish commanders and many of the rebels were Protestant. Orangemen were recruited into the yeomanry to help fight the rebellion and "proved an invaluable addition to government forces".[24] No attempt was made to disarm Orangemen outside the yeomanry because they were seen as by far the lesser threat. It was also claimed that if an attempt had been made then "the whole of Ulster would be as bad as Antrim and Down", where the United Irishmen rebellion was at its strongest.[24] However, sectarian massacres by the rebels in County Wexford "did much to dampen" the rebellion in Ulster.[24] The Scullabogue Barn massacre saw over 100 non-combatant (mostly Protestant) men, women, and children imprisoned in a barn which was then set alight,[35] with the Catholic and Protestant[36] rebels ensuring none escaped, not even a child who it is claimed managed to break out only for a rebel to kill with his pike.[35] In the trials that followed the massacres, evidence was recorded of anti-Orange sentiments being expressed by the rebels at Scullabogue.[35] Partly as a result of this atrocity, the Orange Order quickly grew and large numbers of gentry with experience gained in the yeomanry came into the movement.[24]
The homeland and birthplace of the Defenders was mid-Ulster and here they failed to participate in the rebellion, having been cowed into submission and surrounded by their Protestant neighbours who had been armed by the government.[24] The sectarian attacks on them were so severe that Grand Masters of the Orange Order convened to find ways of reducing them.[24] According to Ruth Dudley Edwards and two former Grand Masters, Orangemen were among the first to contribute to repair funds for Catholic property damaged in the rebellion.[37][38]
One major outcome of the United Irishmen rebellion was the 1800 Act of Union that merged the Irish Parliament with that of Westminster, creating the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Many Catholics supported the Act, but the Orange Order saw it as a threat to the "Protestant constitution" and 36 lodges in counties Armagh and Monaghan alone passed declarations opposing the Union.[24]
Suppression
Dolly's Brae, site of the "Battle of Dolly's Brae" (1849) between Orangemen and Catholic Ribbonmen
In the early nineteenth century, Orangemen were heavily involved in violent conflict with an Irish Catholic secret society called the Ribbonmen. One instance, publicised in a 7 October 1816 edition of the Boston Commercial Gazette, included the murder of a Catholic priest and several members of the congregation of Dumreilly parish in County Cavan on 25 May 1816. According to the article, "A number of Orangemen with arms rushed into the church and fired upon the congregation".[39]
On 19 July 1823 the Unlawful Oaths Bill was passed, banning all oath-bound societies in Ireland. This included the Orange Order, which had to be dissolved and reconstituted. In 1825 a bill banning unlawful associations – largely directed at Daniel O'Connell and his Catholic Association, compelled the Orangemen once more to dissolve their association. When Westminster finally granted Catholic Emancipation in 1829, Roman Catholics were free to take seats as MPs (and take up various other positions of influence and power from which they had been excluded) and play a part in framing the laws of the land. The likelihood of Irish Catholic members holding the balance of power in the Westminster Parliament further increased the alarm of Orangemen in Ireland, as O'Connell's 'Repeal' movement aimed to bring about the restoration of a separate Irish Parliament in Dublin, which would have a Catholic majority, thereby ending to the Protestant Ascendancy. From this moment on, the Orange Order re-emerged in a new and even more militant form.[40]
In 1836 the Order was accused of plotting to place Ernest Augustus, Duke of Cumberland and Imperial Grand Master of the Orange Order, on the throne in place of Victoria when King William IV died; once the plot was revealed the House of Commons called upon the King to disband the Order.[41] Under pressure from Joseph Hume, William Molesworth and Lord John Russell, the King indicated measures would have to be taken and the Duke of Cumberland was forced to dissolve the Orange lodges.[42]
Hume laid evidence before the House of Commons of an approach in July 1832 to Lord Londonderry. A letter from Lieutenant-Colonel W. B. Fairman, Deputy Grand Secretary of the Orange Institution of Great Britain, advised the Marquess that following "a death of importance" (the passing of the King), the Orangemen would abandon their policy of "non-resistance" to the present "Popish Cabinet, and democratical Ministry" (the parliamentary reform ministry of Earl Grey) and that "it might be political to join" them. Londonderry demurred: he had no doubt that the Duke of Cumberland would be persuaded that "the present state of liberal Whig feeling in this very Whig county ... entirely preclude the possibility of successful efforts at this juncture".[43]
In 1845 the ban was again lifted, but the notorious Battle of Dolly's Brae between Orangemen and Ribbonmen in 1849 led to a ban on Orange marches which remained in place for several decades. This was eventually lifted after a campaign of disobedience led by William Johnston of Ballykilbeg, Sovereign Grand Master of the Royal Black Institution, a senior Orange fraternity.[44] Since the Fenian-organised funeral in Dublin for Terence McManus in 1861, Johnston had been asking: "If Nationalists are allowed such mobilisation, why are loyal Orangemen not allowed to march freely".[45] On the Orange Twelfth 1867, he forced the issue by leading a large procession of Orangemen from Bangor to Newtownards in County Down. The contravention of the Party Procession Act earned him a two-month prison sentence.[46][47] The following year, as the standard bearer of United Protestant Working Men's Association of Ulster, Johnston was returned to Parliament for Belfast.[48]
After Gladstone's first Home Rule Bill was defeated in the House of Commons on 8 June 1886, Irish Home-Rule MPs in the House accused the Order's Belfast Grand Master, the Church of Ireland rector Richard Rutledge Kane of fomenting the violent rioting in Belfast that took 32 lives.[55][56]:139RIC constables had been brought in from other parts of Ireland, many of them Catholic, when revellers, celebrating the defeat, had begun attacking Catholic homes and businesses.[57] Kane did not counter the rumour that they were on a punitive mission for the Liberal government, declaring that, unless they were disarmed, 200,000 armed Orangemen would relieve them of their weapons.[58]
At the same, in 1895 Kane was a patron of the branch in Belfast of the Gaelic League, which in the decade to follow was to become indissolubly linked with Irish nationalism.[59]:135–137As a patron of the League's promotion of the Irish language, he was in company of Henry Henry, the Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor, but also Thomas Welland, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore, and George Raphael Buick, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church and branch vice president.[60][59]:190[61] The Branch president was Kane's parishioner, Dr. John St Clair Boyd.[61] There was a time, historian Brian Kennaway remarks, when Orangemen, still regarding themselves as Irish patriots, "had no problem with the Irish language".[62] (Kane's memorial at the Clifton Street Orange Hall over whose opening he had presided in 1885, commends him as a "Loyal Irish Patriot").[63]
Tenant right, labour and the Independent Orange Order
Famously, when in 1880, as part of its campaign for the Three Fs (fair rent, fixity of tenure, and free sale) and of resistance to evictions, the Land League organised the withdrawal of labour from Captain Charles Boycott, a land agent in County Mayo, Orangemen from County Cavan and County Monaghan, under military and police protection, helped bring in the harvest on his employer's estate.[64] But among Orangemen there was tenant-farmer support for reform. One reason the majority Irish Conservatives at Westminster did not oppose Gladstone's 1881 Land Act conceding the three F's was their recognition that "the land grievance had been a bond of discontent between Ulster and the rest of Ireland and in that sense a danger to the union".[65] Quite apart from participation in local tenant-right associations, they had reports of Orangemen in the west (in counties Armagh, Cavan, Fermanagh and Tyrone) actually joining the national League.[66][67]
Tension between tenants and landowners, nonetheless, continued within the Order, the focus shifting from tenant right to "compulsory purchase" (the right of tenants to buy out their landlords at fixed valuations). Particularly in north Antrim, where their organisation was strong, from 1903 tenant farmers began to defect to a new Independent Orange Order (IOO). Within the year, the Independents had nine lodges in Ballymoney alone.[68]
The split had first occurred in Belfast. In laying the foundation stone of the Working Men's Institute in Belfast in 1870, William Johnston had welcomed Catholics and Protestants uniting "around the flag of 'The United Working Classes of Belfast' determined to show that there are times and circumstances when religious differences and party creeds must be forgotten".[69] Others within the Order regarded such unity as tantamount to religious and national ecumenism.[70] Such differences came to a head in 1902, in the contest to succeed Johnston as MP for Belfast South (and at time when four fifths of lodge masters in the city were workingmen).[71]
Thomas Sloan established the Independent lodges after he had been expelled by the Order for running as the nominee of the Belfast Protestant Association against the official unionist candidate, one of the city's largest millowners. For at least some of his supporters, the split was a protest against what they saw as the co-optation of the Orange Order by unionist political leaders and their alignment with the interests of landlords and employers (the "fur coat brigade").[72] With other independents, in the great Belfast Lockout of 1907 Sloan was to speak on platforms with the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union leader, James Larkin.[73]
The Grand Master of the Independents, R. Lindsay Crawford outlined the new order's democratic manifesto in Orangeism, its history and progress: a plea for first principles (1904).[74] However, his subsequent call in the Magheramorne Manifesto (1904) on Irish Protestants to "reconsider their position as Irish citizens and their attitude towards their Roman Catholic countrymen" proved too much for Sloan and most of the membership, and Crawford was eventually expelled.[72]
From the outset, the Orange Order was instrumental in the formation of a distinct Ulster unionism. In 1905, when the Ulster Unionist Council was established to bring together unionists in the north including, the Order was given 50 of 200 seats, It was a position within the constitution of the Ulster Unionist Party that the order was to maintain until voting to sever ties with the party in 2005.[75]
In 1912, the Third Home Rule Bill was introduced in the House of Commons. However, its introduction would be delayed until 1914. The Orange Order, along with the British Conservative Party and unionists in general, were inflexible in opposing the bill.[76][77] The Order helped to organise the 1912 Ulster Covenant – a pledge to oppose Home Rule which was signed by up to 500,000 people.[78] In 1911, some Orangemen began to arm themselves and train as militias. In 1913, the Ulster Unionist Council decided to bring these groups under central control, creating the Ulster Volunteer Force, an Ulster-wide militia dedicated to resisting Home Rule. There was a strong overlap between Orange Lodges and UVF units.[79][80] A large shipment of rifles was imported from Germany to arm them in April 1914, in what became known as the Larne gun-running.
However, the crisis was interrupted by the outbreak of the World War I in August 1914, which caused the Home Rule Bill to be suspended for the duration of the war. Many Orangemen served in the war with the 36th (Ulster) Division, suffering heavy losses, and commemorations of their sacrifice are still an important element of Orange ceremonies.[81]
Orangeman James Craig, the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland
The Orange Order had a central place in the new state of Northern Ireland. From 1921 to 1969, every prime minister of Northern Ireland was an Orangeman and member of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP); all but three Cabinet ministers were Orangemen; all but one unionist senators were Orangemen; and 87 of the 95 MPs who did not become Cabinet Ministers were Orangemen.[82]James Craig, the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, maintained always that Ulster was in effect Protestant and the symbol of its ruling forces was the Orange Order. In 1932, Prime Minister Craig maintained that "ours is a Protestant government and I am an Orangeman". This was in response to a speech the year before by Éamon de Valera in the Irish Free State claiming that Ireland was a "Catholic nation"[83] in a debate about protests against Protestant woman Letitia Dunbar-Harrison being appointed as County Librarian in County Mayo.[84] Two years later he stated: "I have always said that I am an Orangeman first and a politician and a member of this parliament afterwards... All I boast is that we have a Protestant Parliament and a Protestant State".[85][86][87]
At its peak in 1965, the Order's membership was around 70,000, which meant that roughly 1 in 5 adult Ulster Protestant males were members.[88] Since 1965, it has lost a third of its membership, especially in Belfast and Derry. The Order's political influence suffered greatly after the unionist-controlled government of Northern Ireland was abolished in 1973.[88] In 2012, it was stated that estimated membership of the Orange Order was around 34,000.[89]
After the outbreak of "the Troubles" in 1969, the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland encouraged Orangemen to join the Northern Ireland security forces, especially the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and the British Army's Ulster Defence Regiment (UDR). The response from Orangemen was strong. Over 300 Orangemen were killed during the conflict, the vast majority of them members of the security forces.[90] Some Orangemen also joined loyalistparamilitary groups. During the conflict, the Order had a fractious relationship with loyalist paramilitary groups,[91] the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the Independent Orange Order and the Free Presbyterian Church. The Order urged its members not to join these organisations, and it is only recently that some of these intra-unionist breaches have been healed.[88]
Drumcree Church in Portadown that was the focus of a conflict between Protestants and Catholics during the Troubles.
The Drumcree dispute is perhaps the most well-known episode involving the Order since 1921. On the Sunday before 12 July each year, Orangemen in Portadown would traditionally march to-and-from Drumcree Church. Originally, most of the route was farmland, but is now the densely populated Catholic part of town.[92][93] The residents have sought to re-route the march away from this area, seeing it as "triumphalist" and "supremacist".[94][95]
There have been intermittent violent clashes during the march since the 19th century.[96] The onset of the Troubles led to the dispute intensifying in the 1970s and 1980s. At this time, the most contentious part of the march was the outward leg along Obins Street.[92] After serious violence two years in a row, the march was banned from Obins Street in 1986. The focus then shifted to the return leg along Garvaghy Road.[92]
Each July from 1995 to 2000, the dispute drew worldwide attention as it sparked protests and violence throughout Northern Ireland, prompted a massive police/army operation, and threatened to derail the peace process.[92][93] The situation in Portadown was likened to a "war zone"[97] and a "siege".[98] During this time, supporters of the Orangemen murdered at least six Catholic civilians. In 1995 and 1996, residents succeeded in stopping the march. This led to a standoff at Drumcree between the security forces and thousands of loyalists. Following a wave of loyalist violence, the march was allowed through. In 1997, security forces locked down the Catholic area and forced the march through, citing loyalist threats. This sparked widespread protests and violence by Irish nationalists. From 1998 onward the march was banned from Garvaghy Road[99] and the Catholic area was sealed-off with large barricades. For a few years, there was an annual major standoff at Drumcree and widespread loyalist violence. Since 2001, things have been relatively calm, but the Order still campaigns for the right to march on Garvaghy Road.[100] The dispute led to a short-lived boycott of businesses owned by Orangemen and their supporters elsewhere in the region.[101]
Membership rates
Membership of the Order was historically lower in areas where Protestants are in the majority, and vice versa. In County Fermanagh, where the Catholic and Protestant populations are close to parity, membership in 1971 was three times as high as in the more Protestant counties of Antrim and Down, where it was just over 10% of adult Protestant males.[102] Other factors that are associated with high rates of membership are levels of unemployment that more closely match Catholic levels, and low levels of support for the Democratic Unionist Party among unionists.[citation needed]
Symbols
The Orange Order's name stems from the Orange Associations, a name that recognized the landing of William of Orange in England and the start of the Glorious Revolution of 1688.[103] Its flag, known as the Boyne Standard and Orange Standard, has a field of orange with a purple star and a St. George's Cross in the upper left corner.[104] Orange represents the monarchs in the House of Orange.
Beliefs and activities
Orange Order poster depicting historical and religious symbols
Previous rules specifically forbade Roman Catholics and their close relatives from joining[17][18][19] but the current rules use the wording "non-reformed faith" instead. Converts to Protestantism can join by appealing to Grand Lodge.
Masonic influences
James Wilson and James Sloan, who issued the warrants for the first Lodges of the Orange Order along with 'Diamond' Dan Winter, were Freemasons,[27] and in the 19th century many Irish Republicans regarded the Orange Order as a front group established by Unionist Masons as a more violent and jingoist vehicle for the promotion of Unionism.[105] Some anti-Masonic evangelical Christian groups have claimed that the Orange Order is still influenced by freemasonry.[106] Many Masonic traditions survive, such as the organisation of the Order into lodges. The Order has a similar system of degrees through which new members advance. These degrees are interactive plays with references to the Bible. There is particular concern over the ritualism of higher degrees such as the Royal Arch Purple and the Royal Black Institutions.[107]
Sabbatarianism
Queen's LOL 1845 annual service at Union Theological College.
The Order considers important the Fourth Commandment, and that it forbids Christians to work, or engage in non-religious activity generally, on Sundays. When the Twelfth of July falls on a Sunday the parades traditionally held on that date are held the next day instead. In March 2002, the Order threatened "to take every action necessary, regardless of the consequences" to prevent the Ballymena Show being held on a Sunday.[109] The County Antrim Agricultural Association complied with the Order's wishes.[109] Conversely, notable exceptions to such apparently strict Sabbatarianism may be exemplified by Queen's Orange Society (LOL 1845) parading past Queen's University on Sunday, 26 September 2021 before and after holding their annual service at Union Theological College.[108][110]
An Orange Hall in Ballinrees bedecked with Union FlagsAn anti "Sectarian March" sign in Rasharkin
The Order, from its very inception, was an overtly political organisation.[114] In 1905, when the Ulster Unionist Council (UUC) was formed, the Orange Order was entitled to send delegates to its meetings. The UUC was the decision-making body of the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). Between 1922 and 1972, the UUP was consistently the largest party in the Northern Ireland Parliament, and all Prime Ministers of Northern Ireland and the vast majority of senior UUP figures were members of the Order. Due to its close links with the UUP, the Orange Order was able to exert great influence. The Order was the force behind the UUP no-confidence votes in reformist Prime MinistersTerence O'Neill (1969), James Chichester-Clark (1969–71), and Brian Faulkner (1972–74).[88] At the outbreak of The Troubles in 1969, the Order encouraged its members to join the Northern Ireland security forces.[90]
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) attracted the most seats in an election for the first time in 2003. DUP leader Ian Paisley had been clashing with the Order since 1951, when the Order banned members of Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church from acting as Orange chaplains and later, from the 1970s, when it openly endorsed the UUP against the DUP.[88][115] By the turn of the century, however, Orangemen had begun to vote for the DUP in large numbers due to their opposition to the Good Friday Agreement.[116]
In 2005, Order decided to cut its ties to the UUP, ending the 100-year institutional linkage. Speaking to the decision, Grand Master Robert Saulters noted:[117]
When the UUC was established there was only one Unionist Party. That is no longer the case and we feel that arrangements made in 1905 are no longer relevant to the political scene in Northern Ireland in 2005. ...The Loyal Orange Institution will continue to lobby for the unionist cause as events require and we will seek to establish good relationships with all those engaged in the political interests of the unionist people.
There were already a number of high-profile Orangemen who were DUP MPs and strategists.[118]
In December 2009, the Orange Order held secret talks with the two unionist parties.[119] The main goal of these talks was to foster greater unity between the two parties, in the run-up to the May 2010 general election.[119] Sinn Féin's Alex Maskey said that the talks exposed the Order as a "very political organisation".[119] Shortly after the election, Grand Master Robert Saulters called for a "single unionist party" to maintain the union.[120] He said that the Order has members "who represent all the many shades of unionism" and warned, "we will continue to dilute the union if we fight and bicker among ourselves".[120]
In the October 2010 issue of The Orange Standard, Grand Master Robert Saulters referred to 'dissident' Irish republican paramilitaries as the "Roman Catholic IRA".[121]SDLP MLA John Dallat asked Justice MinisterDavid Ford to find if Saulters had broken the hate speech laws. He said: "Linking the Catholic community or indeed any community to terror groups is inciting weak-minded people to hatred, and surely history tells us what that has led to in the past".[122] In a 2011 survey of 1,500 Orangemen throughout Northern Ireland, over 60% believed that "most Catholics are IRA sympathisers".[123]
In 2015, the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland made a submission to the Northern Ireland Department of Arts, Culture and Leisure opposing the introduction of an Irish Language Bill. In its submission, the Lodge stated that it respected "Irish as one of the indigenous languages of the British Isles". However, the Lodge argued an Irish Language Act would promote inequality because it would be "directed towards a section of the Roman Catholic community".[124]
Parades are a big part of the Order's activities. Most Orange lodges hold a yearly parade from their Orange hall to a local church. The denomination of the church is quite often rotated, depending on local demographics.
The highlights of the Orange year are the parades leading up to the celebrations on the Twelfth of July. The Twelfth, however, remains in places a deeply divisive issue, not least because of the alleged triumphalism, anti-Catholicism and anti-Irish nationalism of the Orange Order.[125] In recent years, most Orange parades have passed peacefully.[126][127] All but a handful of the Orange Order parades, at so-called "interface areas" where the two communities live next to each other, are peaceful. The locations used for the annual Twelfth parades are located throughout the six counties of Northern Ireland with County Down having the most venues with thirty-three. Counties Armagh and Fermanagh having a smaller population both have twelve host venues.[128] Some smaller villages such as Carrickmore, Cushendall, Rostrevor, Crossmaglen and Draperstown are not marched in at all and areas with a sizeable population like Coalisland and Dungiven have never been the host for a major Twelfth parade.[129]
The Grand Lodge of Ireland does not recognise the Parades Commission, which it sees as having been founded to target Protestant parades, as Protestants parade at ten times the rate of Catholics. Grand Lodge is, however, divided on the issue of working with the Parades Commission. 40% of Grand Lodge delegates oppose official policy while 60% are in favour. Most of those opposed to Grand Lodge policy are from areas facing parade restrictions like Portadown District, Bellaghy, Derry City and Lower Ormeau.[88]
In a 2011 survey of Orangemen throughout Northern Ireland, 58% said they should be allowed to march through Irish nationalist and Catholic areas with no restrictions; 20% said they should negotiate with residents first.[130]
Orange halls
Rasharkin Orange hall daubed with republican graffitiClifton Street Orange Hall in Belfast designed by William Batt and completed in 1889, which has a protective cage. The equestrian statue on the roof by Harry Hems is the only one of King William III of Ireland, Scotland and England on any Orange hall in Ireland.
Monthly meetings are held in Orange halls. Orange halls on both sides of the Irish border often function as community halls for Protestants and sometimes those of other faiths, although this was more common in the past.[133] The halls often host community groups such as credit unions, local marching bands, Ulster-Scots and other cultural groups as well as religious missions and unionist political parties.
Of the approximately 700 Orange halls in Ireland, 282 have been targeted by arsonists since the beginning of the Troubles in 1968.[134]Paul Butler, a prominent member of Sinn Féin, has said the arson is a "campaign against properties belonging to the Orange Order and other loyal institutions" by nationalists.[135] On one occasion a member of Sinn Féin's youth wing was hospitalised after falling off the roof of an Orange hall.[136] In a number of cases halls have been badly damaged or completely destroyed by arson,[137][138] while others have been damaged by paint bombings, graffiti and other vandalism.[139] The Order claims that there is considerable evidence of an organised campaign of sectarian vandalism by Irish republicans. Grand Secretary Drew Nelson claims that statistical analysis shows that this campaign began in the last years of the 1980s and continues to the present.[139]
Historiography
One of the Orange Order's activities is teaching members and the general public about William of Orange and associated subjects. Both the Grand Lodge and various individual lodges have published numerous booklets about William and the Battle of the Boyne, often aiming to show that they have continued relevance, and sometimes comparing the actions of William's adversary James II with those of the Northern Ireland Office. Furthermore, historical articles are often published in the Order's monthly newspaper The Orange Standard[140] (available in a print edition and also electronically) and the Twelfth souvenir booklet. While William is the most frequent subject, other topics have included the Battle of the Somme (particularly the 36th (Ulster) Division's role in it), Saint Patrick (who the Order argues was not Roman Catholic), and the Protestant Reformation.
There are at least two Orange Lodges in Northern Ireland which they claim represent the heritage and religious ethos of Saint Patrick. The best known is the Cross of Saint Patrick LOL (Loyal Orange lodge) 688,[141] instituted in 1968 for the purpose of (re)claiming Saint Patrick. The lodge has had several well-known members, including Rev Robert Bradford MP who was the lodge chaplain who himself was killed by the Provisional IRA, the late Ernest Baird. Nelson McCausland of the DUP and Gordon Lucy, Director of the Ulster Society are the more prominent members within the lodge membership. In the 1970s there was also a Belfast lodge called Oidhreacht Éireann (Ireland's Heritage) LOL 1303, which argued that the Irish language and Gaelic culture were not the exclusive property of Catholics or republicans.[142]
William was supported by the Pope in his campaigns against James' backer Louis XIV of France,[143] and this fact is sometimes left out of Orange histories.[144]
Occasionally the Order and the more fundamentalist Independent Order publishes historical arguments based more on religion than on history. British Israelism, which claims that the British people are descended from the Israelites and that Queen Elizabeth II is a direct descendant of the Biblical King David, has from time to time been advanced in Orange publications.[145]
The Order has been prominent in commemorating Ulster's war dead, particularly Orangemen and particularly those who died in the Battle of the Somme (1916) during World War I. There are many parades on and around 1 July in commemoration of the Somme, although the war memorial aspect is more obvious in some parades than others. There are several memorial lodges, and a number of banners which depict the Battle of the Somme, war memorials, or other commemorative images. In the grounds of the Ulster Tower Thiepval, which commemorates the men of the Ulster Division who died in the Battle of the Somme, a smaller monument pays homage to the Orangemen who died in the war.[146]
Relationship with loyalist paramilitaries
Orangemen carrying a banner of killed UVF member and Orangeman Brian Robinson in 2003
The Orange Order has been criticised for associating with loyalist paramilitary groups such as the UVF and UDA, which are classified as terrorist organisations. However, it has publicly condemned terrorism and paramilitary violence. Some bands that appear at Orange marches openly display support for loyalist paramilitary groups, such as by carrying paramilitary flags or sporting paramilitary names and emblems.[147] For example, prominent loyalist John Gregg was a member of Cloughfern Young Conquerors band,[148] while Coleraine-based Freeman Memorial band was named after a UVF member who was killed by his own bomb.[149] It has also been claimed that paramilitary groups approach certain bands asking the band to carry a flag of their organisation with financial assistance sometimes offered for doing so.[150]
On 12 July 1972, at least fifty masked and uniformed members of the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) escorted an Orange march into the Catholic area of Portadown,[96][163][164] saluting the Orangemen as they passed.[165] That year, Orangemen formed a paramilitary group called the Orange Volunteers. This group "bombed a pub in Belfast in 1973 but otherwise did little illegal other than collect the considerable bodies of arms found in Belfast Orange Halls".[166] Portadown Orangemen allowed known militants such as George Seawright to take part in a 6 July 1986 march, contrary to a prior agreement.[167] Seawright was a unionist politician and UVF member who had publicly proposed burning Catholics in ovens.[167] As the march entered the town's Catholic district, the RUC seized Seawright and other known militants. The Orangemen attacked the officers with stones and other missiles.[167]
When a July 1992 Orange march passed the scene of the Sean Graham bookmakers' shooting—in which the UDA killed five Catholic civilians—Orangemen shouted pro-UDA slogans and held aloft five fingers as a taunt to residents.[168] Journalists Henry McDonald and Jim Cusack said images of Orangemen "gloating over the massacre" were beamed around the world and were a public relations disaster for the Order. Patrick Mayhew, then Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said the marchers "would have disgraced a tribe of cannibals".[168] The incident led to a more concerted effort by residents to have the marches banned from the area.[169] In 2007, a banner commemorating UDA member Joe Bratty appeared at an Orange march. Bratty was said to have orchestrated the massacre.[170]
Orange lodges in Britain have also been accused of links with loyalist paramilitaries. In the early years of The Troubles, the Order's Grand Secretary in Scotland toured Orange lodges for volunteers to "go to Ulster to fight". Thousands are believed to have volunteered although only a small number travelled to Ulster.[171][172] During the 1970s an Orangeman—Roddy MacDonald—was the UDA's 'commander' in Scotland.[173] In 1976, senior Scottish Orangemen tried to expel him after he admitted on television that he was a UDA leader and had smuggled weapons to Northern Ireland. However, his expulsion was blocked by 300 Orangemen at a special disciplinary hearing.[173][174][175] His successor as Scottish UDA commander, James Hamilton, was also an Orangeman.[173] Many Scottish Orangemen were also convicted for loyalist paramilitary activity, and some Orange meetings were used to raise funds for loyalist prisoners' welfare groups.[176][177] In 2006, three Liverpool Orangemen were jailed for possession of weapons and UVF membership. Local MP Louise Ellman called for them to be expelled from the Order.[178]
During the Drumcree standoffs, loyalist militants publicly supported the Orangemen and launched waves of violence across NI in protest at the Orange march being blocked. They smuggled homemade weaponry to Drumcree, apparently unhindered by the Orangemen,[179] and attacked police lines. Members of the UDA/UFF appeared at Drumcree with banners supporting the Orangemen. Portadown Orange Lodge said it could not stop such people from gathering, but added that it welcomed any support.[180]Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) leader Billy Wright was frequently seen at Drumcree in the company of Harold Gracey, head of Portadown Orange Lodge.[179] Gracey later attended a rally in support of Wright[181] and refused to condemn the loyalist violence linked to the standoff.[182]
In the late 1990s, Stoneyford Orange Hall was reported to be a focal point for the Orange Volunteers.[183] Following a police raid on the hall, two Orangemen were convicted for possession of "documents likely to be of use to terrorists", an automatic rifle, and membership of the Orange Volunteers.[184] Their Orange lodge refused to expel them.[185]
An Orangeman and DUP election candidate with links to the Real UFF in Antrim was jailed in 2013 for his part in a sectarian attack on a Polish family. He was expelled from the Order.[186]
The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland has issued several statements condemning violence and paramilitarism.[187] Answering accusations of paramilitary links by Sinn Féin in 2011, an Orange spokesman said: "The Orange Order has consistently condemned all terrorist violence".[188] In 2008, Armagh Orangemen condemned the flying of paramilitary flags.[189] Denis Watson, the then secretary of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, has publicly called for anyone convicted of terrorist offences to be thrown out.[190] Addressing a 12 July demonstration in 2000, Orangeman and Democratic Unionist politician Jeffrey Donaldson said "It is essential that the Orange Order does not allow the paramilitaries to infiltrate its parades or hijack legitimate protests as a means of flaunting their aggression and engaging in displays of naked intimidation... The Orange Order stands for higher ideals than this and must at every opportunity condemn the illegal activities of the paramilitaries and of all those who engage in acts of violence".[191] Eric Kaufmann, in his book The New Unionism, writes: "The Orange Order actually took a firm stand against violence and paramilitarism throughout the Troubles. This opposition was rooted in the large contingent of Protestant clergymen who are built into the power structure of the Order. Young Orangemen were urged to join the RUC (police) or UDR (local security forces) and to stay away from paramilitaries".[192]
Requirements for entry
Most jurisdictions require both the spouse and parents of potential applicants to be Protestant, although the Grand Lodge can be appealed to make exceptions for converts. Members have been expelled for attending Roman Catholic religious ceremonies. In the period from 1964 to 2002, 11% of those expelled from the order were expelled for their presence at a Roman Catholic religious event such as a baptism, service or funeral.[193] This is based on Reformed Christian theology, which teaches that the Roman Catholic Mass is idolatry,[194] a view promulgated by Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther.[195]
The Order takes as its basis the Open Bible and historical Reformed documents such as the Presbyterian Westminster Confession, Anglican 39 Articles and other Protestant creeds.[196][197]
In the 19th century, Mortimer O'Sullivan, a converted Roman Catholic, was a Grand Chaplain of the Orange Order in Ireland.
Structure
The Orange Institution in Ireland has the structure of a pyramid. At its base are about 1400 private lodges; every Orangeman belongs to a private lodge. Each private lodge sends six representatives to the district lodge, of which there are 126. Depending on size, each district lodge sends seven to thirteen representatives to the county lodge, of which there are 12. Each of these sends representatives to the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, which heads the Orange Order.
The Grand Lodge of Ireland has 373 members. As a result, much of the real power in the Order resides in the Central Committee of the Grand Lodge, which is made up of three members from each of the six counties of Northern Ireland (Down, Antrim, Armagh, Londonderry, Tyrone and Fermanagh) as well as the two other County Lodges in Northern Ireland, the City of Belfast Grand Lodge and the City of Londonderry Grand Orange Lodge, two each from the remaining Ulster counties (Cavan, Donegal and Monaghan), one from Leitrim, and 19 others. There are other committees of the Grand Lodge, including rules revision, finance, and education.
Despite this hierarchy, private lodges are basically autonomous as long as they generally obey the rules of the Institution. Breaking these can lead to suspension of the lodge's warrant – essentially the dissolution of the lodge – by the Grand Lodge, but this rarely occurs.[citation needed] Private lodges may disobey policies laid down by senior lodges without consequence. For example, several lodges have failed to expel members convicted of murder despite a rule stating that anyone convicted of a serious crime should be expelled,[198] and Portadown lodges have negotiated with the Parades Commission in defiance of Grand Lodge policy that the commission should not be acknowledged.
Private lodges wishing to change Orange Order rules or policy can submit a resolution to their district lodge, which may submit it upwards until it eventually reaches the Grand Lodge.[citation needed]
All Lodge meetings commence with the reading of the Bible and prayers that non-practising Protestants, Roman Catholics and people of other faiths and none, 'may become wise unto salvation' (which is direct quote from 2 Timothy 3:15 in the Bible).[199][200]
Related organisations
An Orangewoman marching in an Orange Order parade in Glasgow.
Association of Loyal Orangewomen of Ireland
A distinct[201] women's organisation grew up out of the Orange Order. Called the Association of Loyal Orangewomen of Ireland,[202] this organisation was revived in December 1911 having been dormant since the late 1880s. They have risen in prominence in recent years, largely due to protests in Drumcree.[203] The women's order is parallel to the male order, and participates in its parades as much as the males apart from 'all male' parades and 'all ladies' parades respectively. The contribution of women to the Orange Order is recognised in the song "Ladies Orange Lodges O!".
The Independent Orange Institution was formed in 1903 by Thomas Sloan, who opposed the main Order's domination by Unionist Party politicians and the upper classes. A dispute between unionist candidates in East Belfast who were both Orangemen, saw one being expelled from the Order for embarrassing an Orange grandee who had apparently not voted against a nationalist motion.[204] The Independent Order originally had radical tendencies, especially in the area of labour relations, but this soon faded. In the 1950s and 60s the Independents focused primarily on religious issues, especially the maintenance of Sunday as a holy day and separation of politics from religion. With the outbreak of the Troubles, Ian Paisley began regularly speaking at Independent meetings, although he was never a member. As a result, the Independent Institution has become associated with Paisley and the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster and Democratic Unionist Party. Recently the relationship between the two Orange Institutions has improved, with joint church services being held. Some people believe that this will ultimately result in a healing of the split which led to the Independent Orange Institution breaking away from the mainstream Order. Like the main Order, the Independent Institution parades and holds meetings on the Twelfth of July. It is based mainly in north Antrim.
The Royal Black Institution was formed out of the Orange Order two years after the founding of the parent body. Although it is a separate organisation, one of the requirements for membership in the Royal Black is membership of the Orange Order and to be no less than 17 years old. The membership is exclusively male and the Royal Black Chapter is generally considered to be more religious and respectable in its proceedings than the Orange Order.
The Apprentice Boys of Derry exist for their acts during the siege of Derry from James II. Although they have no formal connection with the Orange Order, the two societies have overlapping membership.
'Diamond Dan'
As part of the re-branding of Orangeism to encourage younger people into a largely ageing membership, and as part of the planned rebranding of the July marches into an 'Orangefest', the 'superhero' Diamond Dan was created – named after one of its founding members, 'Diamond' Dan Winter – Diamond referring to the Institution's formation at the Diamond, Loughgall, in 1795.[205]
Initially unveiled with a competition for children to name their new mascot in November 2007 (it was nicknamed 'Sash Gordon' by several parts of the British media); at the official unveiling of the character's name in February 2008, Orange Order education officer David Scott said Diamond Dan was meant to represent the true values of the Order: "...the kind of person who offers his seat on a crowded bus to an elderly lady. He won't drop litter and he will be keen on recycling".[206] There were plans for a range of Diamond Dan merchandise designed to appeal to children.
There was however, uproar when it was revealed in the middle of the 'Marching Season' that Diamond Dan was a repaint of illustrator Dan Bailey's "Super Guy" character (often used by British computer magazines), and taken without his permission.[205]
List of members
Grand Masters
Grand Masters, of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland:[207]
Both major universities in Northern Ireland have student societies to promote Orangeism on campus. Students at Queen's University Belfast formed the first 'Student's Orange Society' in May 2007 aiming to, "educate the students of Queen's on the different aspects of the Orange Order."[212] Societies were later formed at Ulster University, first at the Jordanstown campus in 2010, followed by Coleraine in 2012. The societies engage in a range of cultural, historical and social events. Any student can join the Orange Society at their university regardless of their religion or background.
↑ Page, Chris (30 August 2015). "Orange Order on the equator: Keeping the faith in Ghana". BBC. Archived from the original on 19 July 2021. Retrieved 16 May 2017. It is perhaps unsurprising that the order has outposts in countries like Australia and Canada where ex-pats from Northern Ireland have emigrated. But that is not how the order took root in the West African countries Ghana and Togo. The first Orange lodge in what is now Ghana was founded in 1918.
↑ Benedetto, Robert; McKim, Donald K. (6 October 2009). Historical Dictionary of the Reformed Churches. Scarecrow Press. p.353. ISBN978-0-8108-7023-9. Most of the organization's lodges are located in [Northern] Ireland, England, and Scotland, although others can be found throughout the British Commonwealth, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Africa. The lodges of every country are independent, but the Orange Order meets in a triennial world council.
↑ "Welcome to the Grand Orange Lodge". Orange Order. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 15 May 2013. We are a Protestant fraternity with members throughout the world. Autonomous Grand Lodges are found in Scotland, England, the United States of America, West Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
↑ Govan, D.H. (2021). "Towards a religious understanding of the Orange Order: Belfast 1910 to 1914". Irish Studies Review. 29 (4): 501–514. doi:10.1080/09670882.2021.1976445. S2CID238584932. To most outsiders, it is a sectarian remnant and an obdurate barricade to progress, but for its members and supporters, the Order exists to defend Protestantism and civil and religious liberty across the globe. Certainly, the Order describes itself as a religious brotherhood, and whatever else it might be – imperialist, violent, gauche – it is ultimately sectarian.
↑ "Orangemen take part in Twelfth of July parades". BBC News. 12 July 2010. Archived from the original on 17 July 2010. Retrieved 25 August 2010. Some marches have been a source of tension between nationalists who see the parades as triumphalist and intimidating, and Orangemen who believe it is their right to walk on public roads.
↑ "Protestant fraternity returns to spiritual home". Reuters. 30 May 2009. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2010. The Orange Order's parades, with their distinctive soundtrack of thunderous drums and pipes, are seen by some Catholics in Northern Ireland as a triumphalist display.
↑ "Ormeau Road frustration". An Phoblacht. 27 April 2000. Archived from the original on 28 January 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2010. The overwhelming majority of nationalists view Orange parades as triumphalist coat trailing exercises.
1 2 "Kinder, gentler or same old Orange?". Irish Central. 23 July 2009. Archived from the original on 14 November 2011. Retrieved 25 August 2010. The annual Orange marches have passed relatively peacefully in Northern Ireland this year, and it seems a good faith effort is underway to try and reorient the day from one of triumphalism to one of community outreach and a potential tourist attraction... The 12th may well have been a celebration of a long-ago battle at the Boyne in 1690, but it came to symbolize for generations of Catholics the "croppie lie down" mentality on the Orange side. The thunderous beat of the huge drums was just a small way of instilling fear into the Nationalist communities, while the insistence on marching wherever they liked through Nationalist neighbourhoods was also a statement of supremacy and contempt for the feelings of the other community.
↑ Connolly, Sean J (2008). Divided kingdom: Ireland, 1630–1800. Oxford University Press. p.432. Modern Irish republicans may look back to the United Irishmen as the founders of their tradition. But the one present-day organisation that can trace an unbroken descent from the 1790s is the Protestant supremacist Orange Order.
↑ Roe, Paul (2005). Ethnic violence and the societal security dilemma. Routledge. p.62. Ignatieff explains how the victory of William of Orange over Catholic King James 'became a founding myth of ethnic superiority... The Ulstermen's reward, as they saw it, was permanent ascendancy over the Catholic Irish'. Thus, Orange Order marches have come to symbolise the supremacy of Protestantism over Catholicism in Northern Ireland.
↑ Wilson, Ron (1976). "Is it a religious war?". A flower grows in Ireland. University Press of Mississippi. p.127. At the close of the eighteenth century, Protestants, again feeling the threat of the Catholic majority, began forming secret societies which coalesced into the Orange Order. Its main purpose has always been to maintain Protestant supremacy
1 2 "...No catholic and no-one whose close relatives are catholic may be a member." Northern Ireland The Orange State, Michael Farrell
↑ Reardon, Lawrence C. (2006). The Catholic Church and the Nation-State: Comparative Perspectives. Georgetown University Press. p.126. ISBN1589017242. The 'Marching Days' beginning on July 12 each year... are considered highlights of the Protestant calendar. A few of theses marches, wind their way past some Catholic enclaves, a move considered provocative by some nationalists, that ensures resistance, trouble and, occasionally, violence.
1 2 3 Ian McBride (8 November 2001). History and Memory in Modern Ireland. Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-79366-1.
↑ Lenihan, Padraig (2003). 1690 Battle of the Boyne. Tempus. pp.258–259. ISBN9780752425979.
↑ William Blacker, Robert Hugh Wallace, The formation of the Orange Order, 1795–1798: Education Committee of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, 1994 ISBN0-9501444-3-6, ISBN978-0-9501444-3-6 Pg 37
↑ The Men of No Popery: The Origins of The Orange Order, Jim Smyth, History Ireland Vol 3 No 3 Autumn 1995
↑ William Blacker, Robert Hugh Wallace, The formation of the Orange Order, 1795–1798: Education Committee of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, 1994 ISBN0-9501444-3-6, ISBN978-0-9501444-3-6 Pg 139–140
↑ Tony Gray The Orange Order, Rodley Head London (1972), pp. 103–106 ISBN0-370-01340-9
↑ "The Cumberland Plot" New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 5, 31 January 1901, Page 3
↑ Murphy, James H. Abject Loyalty: Nationalism and Monarchy in Ireland During the Reign of Queen Victoria The Catholic University of America Press (2001) p18
↑ Kennedy, David (1955), "Ulster and the Antecedents of Home Rule, 1850-86", in T. W. Moody and J. C. Beckett (eds.), Ulster Since 1800, pp. 79-91. London: British Broadcasting Corporation. pp. 90-91
1 2 Mac Póilin, Aodán (2018). Our Tangled Speech: Essays on Language and Culture. Belfast: Ulster Historical Foundation. pp.134–137. ISBN9781909556676.
↑ Kirkpatrick, R. W. (1980), "Origins and development of the land war in mid-Ulster, 1879–85" in F. S. Lyons and R. A. J. Hawkins (eds.) Ireland under the Union: varieties of tension: Essays in honour of T. W. Moody, Oxford University Press, pp. 201–35.
↑ Kaufman, Eric P. (2009), “The Orange Order in Scotland since 1860: A Social Analysis,” in New Perspectives on the Irish in Scotland, ed. M. J. Mitchell. Edinburgh: Birlinn, p. 173.
1 2 Courtney, Roger (2013). Dissenting Voices: Rediscovering the Irish Progressive Presbyterian Tradition. Belfast: Ulster Historical Society. pp.286–287. ISBN9781909556065.
↑ Collins, Peter (1998). "Larkin, James", S.J. Connolly, The Oxford Companion to Irish History. Oxford University Press. p. 302
↑ Dempsey, Pauric; Boylan, Shaun. "Crawford, (Robert) Lindsay". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge University Press. Archived from the original on 30 November 2020. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
↑ Ireland: A History from the Twelfth Century to the Present Day, Paul Johnson, HarperCollins Ltd; New (1981), ISBN0-586-05453-7, Pg.209, Unionism and Orangeism in Northern Ireland Since 1945: The Decline of the Loyal Family, Henry Patterson and Eric Kaufmann, Manchester University Press (2007), ISBN0-7190-7744-3, Pg.28, Orange Parades: The Politics of Ritual, Tradition and Control, Dominic Bryan, Pluto Press, (2000), ISBN0-7453-1413-9, Pg.66
↑ Northern Ireland House of Commons Official Report, Vol 34 col 1095. Sir James Craig, Unionist Party, then Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, 24 April 1934. This speech is often misquoted as "A Protestant Parliament for a Protestant People", or "A Protestant State for a Protestant People".
↑ Various Orange Order leaders have condemned Loyalist paramilitaries over the years. For example, see Belfast Telegraph, 12 July 1974, p.3 and 12 July 1976, p.9; Tyrone Constitution, 16 July 1976, p.1 and 14 July 1978, p.14.
↑ "The Orange Order". Inside the Hidden World of Secret Societies. Archived from the original on 28 December 2009. Retrieved 1 January 2010. ("On top of these previous concerns, there has been a growing evangelical opposition to the highly degrading ritualistic practices of the Royal Arch Purple and the Royal Black Institutions within the Orange over this past number of years.")
↑ David George Boyce, Robert Eccleshall, Vincent Geoghegan. Political Thought in Ireland Since The Seventeenth Century. Routledge, 1993. Page 203.
↑ Mitchel, Patrick. Evangelicalism and national identity in Ulster, 1921–1998. Oxford University Press, 2003. Page 136.
↑ For the Cause of Liberty, Terry Golway, Touchstone, 2000, ISBN0-684-85556-9 p.179; Ireland: A History, Robert Kee, Abacus, First published 1982 Revised edition published 2003, 2004 and 2005, ISBN0-349-11676-8 p61; Ireland History of a Nation, David Ross, Geddes & Grosset, Scotland, First published 2002, Reprinted 2005 & 2006, ISBN1-84205-164-4 p.195
↑ Submission dated 19 March 2015 of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland and signed by Dr. David Hume, Director of Services of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland in respect of the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure consultation paper entitled "Consultation on Proposals for an Irish Language Bill"
↑ Drumcree: The Orange Order's Last stand, Chris Ryder and Vincent Kearney, Methuen, ISBN0-413-76260-2.; Through the Minefield, David McKittrick, Blackstaff Press, 1999, Belfast, ISBN0-85640-652-X.
↑ Andrew Boyd, 'The Orange Order, 1795–1995', History Today, September 1995, pp.22–3.
↑ Tim Pat Coogan, 1916: The Easter Rising, Phoenix, 2001, ISBN0-7538-1852-3, p. 14
↑ For example, M.W. Dewar, John Brown and S.E. Long, Orangeism: A New Historical Appreciation, Belfast, 1967, pp.43–6.
↑ For example, Orange Standard, July 1984, p.8; Alan Campbell, Let the Orange Banners Speak, 3rd edn, 2001, section on 'The Secret of Britain's Greatness'.
↑ Steven Moore, The Irish on the Somme: A Battlefield Guide to the Irish Regiments in the Great War and the Monuments to their Memory, Belfast, 2005, p.110
Neal, Frank (1991). Sectarian Violence: The Liverpool Experience, 1819–1914: An Aspect of Anglo–Irish History. Manchester University Press. ISBN0-7190-2348-3. (Considered the principal study of English Orange traditions)
Sibbert, R.M. (1939). Orangeism in Ireland and throughout the Empire. London. (Strongly favourable)
Senior, H. (1966). Orangeism in Ireland and Britain, 1795–1836. London.
Gray, Tony (1972). The Orange Order. The Bodley Head. London. ISBN0-370-01340-9.
Akenson, Don (1986). The Orangeman: The Life & Ties of Ogle Gowan. Lorimer. ISBN0-88862-963-X.
Cadigan, Sean T. (1991). "Paternalism and Politics: Sir Francis Bond Head, the Orange Order, and the Election of 1836". Canadian Historical Review. 72 (3): 319–347. doi:10.3138/CHR-072-03-02. S2CID154595085.
Currie, Philip (1995). "Toronto Orangeism and the Irish Question, 1911–1916". Ontario History. 87 (4): 397–409.
Denniss, Gary. The Spirit of the Twelfth: The story of the Orange Order in Canada GarDen press, 1982.
Gordon, Michael (1993). The Orange riots: Irish political violence in New York City, 1870 and 1871. Cornell University Press. ISBN0-8014-2754-1.
Pennefather, R. S. (1984). The orange and the black: Documents in the history of the Orange Order, Ontario, and the West, 1890–1940. Orange and Black Publications. ISBN0-9691691-0-8.
See, Scott W. (1983). "The Orange Order and Social Violence in Mid-nineteenth Century Saint John". Acadiensis. 13 (1): 68–92.
See, Scott W. (1991). "Mickeys and Demons' vs. 'Bigots and Boobies': The Woodstock Riot of 1847". Acadiensis. 21 (1): 110–131.
See, Scott W. (1993). Riots in New Brunswick: Orange Nativism and Social Violence in the 1840s. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN0-8020-7770-6.
Winder, Gordon M. "Trouble in the North End: The Geography of Social Violence in Saint John, 1840–1860". Errington and Comacchio. 1: 483–500.
Pierre-Luc Bégin (2008). " Loyalisme et fanatisme ", Petite histoire du mouvement orangiste Canadien, Les Éditions du Québécois, 2008, 200 p. ( ISBN2-923365-22-4).
Luc Bouvier, (2002). «Les sacrifiés de la bonne entente» Histoire des francophones du Pontiac, Éditions de l'Action nationale.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Orange Order.
The Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) was an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed by Billy Wright in 1996 when he and his unit split from the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) after breaking its ceasefire. Most of its members came from the UVF's Mid-Ulster Brigade, which Wright had commanded. In a two-year period from August 1996, the LVF waged a paramilitary campaign in opposition to Irish republicanism and the Northern Ireland peace process. During this time it killed at least 14 people in gun and bomb attacks, almost all of them Catholic civilians killed at random. The LVF called off its campaign in August 1998 and decommissioned some of its weapons, but in the early 2000s a loyalist feud led to several killings. Since then, the LVF has been largely inactive, but its members are believed to have been involved in rioting and organized crime. In 2015, the security forces stated that the LVF "exists only as a criminal group" in Mid-Ulster and Antrim.
William Stephen Wright, known as King Rat, was a Northern Irish loyalist paramilitary leader who founded the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) during The Troubles. Wright had joined the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in his home town of Portadown around 1975. After spending several years in prison, he became a Protestant fundamentalist preacher. Wright resumed his UVF activities around 1986 and, in the early 1990s, replaced Robin Jackson as commander of that organisation's Mid-Ulster Brigade. According to the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), Wright was involved in the sectarian killings of up to 20 Catholics but was never convicted for any.
Portadown is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town sits on the River Bann in the north of the county, about 24 miles (39 km) southwest of Belfast. It is in the Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council area and had a population of about 32,000 at the 2021 Census. For some purposes, Portadown is treated as part of the "Craigavon Urban Area", alongside Craigavon and Lurgan.
The Red Hand Defenders (RHD) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland. It was formed in 1998 by loyalists who opposed the Belfast Agreement and the loyalist ceasefires. Its members were drawn mostly from the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF). The name had first been used by Red Hand Commandos dissident Frankie Curry in 1996 and he was the leading figure in what was a somewhat unstructured organization until he was killed in 1999. It is named after the Red Hand of Ulster.
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The Twelfth is a primarily Ulster Protestant celebration held on 12 July. It began in the late 18th century in Ulster. It celebrates the Glorious Revolution (1688) and victory of Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne (1690), which ensured a Whig political party and Anglican Ascendancy in Ireland and the passing of the Penal Laws to disenfranchise and persecute the nation's Catholic majority, and to a lesser extent Protestant Dissenters, until Catholic Emancipation in 1829.
Drumcree Parish Church, officially The Church of the Ascension, is the Church of Ireland parish church of Drumcree in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It sits on a hill in the townland of Drumcree, outside Portadown. It is a site of historic significance and is a listed building.
Ulster loyalism is a strand of Ulster unionism associated with working class Ulster Protestants in Northern Ireland. Like other unionists, loyalists support the continued existence of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, and oppose a united Ireland independent of the UK. Unlike other strands of unionism, loyalism has been described as an ethnic nationalism of Ulster Protestants and "a variation of British nationalism". Loyalists are often said to have a conditional loyalty to the British state so long as it defends their interests. They see themselves as loyal primarily to the Protestant British monarchy rather than to British governments and institutions, while Garret FitzGerald argued they are loyal to 'Ulster' over 'the Union'. A small minority of loyalists have called for an independent Ulster Protestant state, believing they cannot rely on British governments to support them. The term 'loyalism' is usually associated with paramilitarism.
The Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland, or Loyal Orange Institution of Scotland, Orange Order in Scotland, The Orange Order is the oldest and biggest Protestant fraternity in Scotland. The Loyal Orange Institution was an official participant in the 2014 independence referendum. Its headquarters are in Motherwell, having previously been in Bridgeton, Glasgow with 15,000 members in the Scottish Lowlands.
This article recounts the violence and other effects related to The Troubles in Portadown, County Armagh, Northern Ireland. Much of it has been related to the Drumcree parade dispute.
The South Armagh Republican Action Force(SARAF) shortened simply to the Republican Action Force(RAF) for a small number of attacks in Belfast was an Irish republican paramilitary group that was active from September 1975 to April 1977 during the Troubles in Northern Ireland. Its area of activity was mainly the southern part of County Armagh. According to writers such as Ed Moloney and Richard English, it was a cover name used by some members of the Provisional IRA South Armagh Brigade. The journalist Jack Holland, alleged that members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) were also involved in the group. During the same time that the South Armagh Republican Action Force was active the INLA carried out at least one sectarian attack that killed Protestant civilians using the covername "Armagh People's Republican Army". According to Malcolm Sutton's database at CAIN, the South Armagh Republican Action Force was responsible for 24 deaths during the conflict, all of whom were classified as civilians.
Parades are a prominent cultural feature of Northern Ireland. The overwhelming majority of parades are held by Ulster Protestant, unionist or Ulster loyalist groups, but some Irish nationalist, republican and non-political groups also parade. Due to longstanding controversy surrounding the contentious nature of some parades, a quasi-judicial public body, the Parades Commission, exists to place conditions and settle disputes. Although not all parading groups recognise the Commission's authority, its decisions are legally binding.
The Loyal Orange Institution, better known as the Orange Order, is a Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland. It has been a strong supporter of Irish unionism and has had close links with the Ulster Unionist Party, which governed Northern Ireland from 1922 to 1972. The Orange Order has lodges throughout Ireland, although it is strongest in the North. There are also branches throughout the Commonwealth, and in the United States. In the 20th century, the organisation went into sharp decline outside Northern Ireland and County Donegal. McGarry, John; O'Leary, Brendan (1995). Explaining Northern Ireland: Broken Images. Blackwell Publishers. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-631-18349-5.; The Orange marches</ref> The Order has a substantial fraternal and benevolent component.
The Drumcree conflict or Drumcree standoff is a dispute over yearly parades in the town of Portadown, Northern Ireland. The town is mainly Protestant and hosts numerous Protestant marches each summer, but has a significant Catholic minority. The Orange Order insists that it should be allowed to march its traditional route to and from Drumcree Church on the Sunday before the Twelfth of July. However, most of this route is through the mainly Catholic/Irish nationalist part of town. The residents, who see the march as sectarian, triumphalist and supremacist, have sought to ban it from their area.
Orange walks, or Orange marches, are a series of parades by members of the Orange Order and other Protestant fraternal societies, held during the summer months in various Commonwealth nations, and most notably across Northern Ireland. The parades typically build up to 12 July celebrations marking Prince William of Orange's victory over King James II and VII at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.
The Tullyvallen massacre took place on 1 September 1975, when Irish republican gunmen attacked an Orange Order meeting hall at Tullyvallen, near Newtownhamilton in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The Orange Order is an Ulster Protestant and unionist brotherhood. Five Orangemen were killed and seven wounded in the shooting. The "South Armagh Republican Action Force" claimed responsibility, saying it was retaliation for a string of attacks on Catholic civilians by Loyalists. It is believed members of the Provisional IRA carried out the attack, despite the organisation being on ceasefire.
From 6 to 11 July 1997 there were mass protests, fierce riots and gun battles in Irish nationalist districts of Northern Ireland. Irish nationalists/republicans, in some cases supported by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), attacked the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) and British Army. The protests and violence were sparked by the decision to allow the Orange Order to march through a Catholic/nationalist neighbourhood of Portadown. Irish nationalists were outraged by the decision and by the RUC's aggressive treatment of those protesting against the march. There had been a bitter dispute over the march for many years.
Richard Jameson, was a Northern Irish businessman and loyalist, who served as the leader of the paramilitary Ulster Volunteer Force's (UVF) Mid-Ulster Brigade. He was killed outside his Portadown home during a feud with the rival Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF), the breakaway organisation founded by former Mid-Ulster UVF commander Billy Wright after he and the Portadown unit of the Mid-Ulster Brigade were officially stood down by the Brigade Staff in August 1996.
The flag of the Orange Order, also known as the Boyne Standard, or the Orange Standard, is the flag used by a Northern Irish Protestant fraternal organisation, the Orange Order. The flag consists of an orange background with a purple star and a Saint George's Cross in canton.
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