Battle of the Diamond

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The Battle of the Diamond was a sectarian skirmish fought in Loughgall, Northern Ireland in 1795 between a Catholic faction known as the Defenders and a Protestant one called the Peep O'Day Boys. The fight led to the formation of the Orange Order.

Sectarian strife had been building in county Armagh for several years before the confrontation at Loughgall. Following the repeal of penal laws restricting Catholic access to landed property in 1778 and 1782, Catholic competition with Protestants for leases intensified, driving up prices and provoking Protestant resentment. Then in 1793 the Catholic Relief Act enfranchised forty shilling freeholders in the counties, thus increasing the political value of Catholic tenants to landlords. In addition, Catholics began to enter the linen weaving trade, thus depressing Protestant wage rates. From the 1780’s the Protestant Peep O'Day boys grouping began attacking Catholic homes and smashing their looms. In addition, the Peep O'Day Boys disarmed Catholics of any weapons they were holding. [1]. The Defenders were formed in response to these attacks, but rapidly began making their own raids on Protestant households.

The battle occurred on 21st September 1795 outside the small village of Loughgall. The skirmish lasted fifteen minutes and was centred on the public house of Daniel Winter, which was located at the Diamond crossroads. Winter's pub was burnt to the ground by the attacking Defenders, who had targeted it as a gathering house of a local Protestant militia, the Peep O Day Boys.^[1]. Roughly 30 Catholic Defenders, but no Peep O'Day Boys were killed in the fight. Hundreds of Catholic homes and at least one Church were burnt out in the aftermath of the skirmish [2].

After the battle Daniel Winter, James Wilson and James Sloan formed the Orange Order to protect Protestant property.