History of the Orange Institution

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The Orange Institution, better known as the Orange Order, is a Protestant fraternal organisation 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. Until the partition of Ireland the Institution had lodges throughout Ireland although it was strongest in the North. There were also branches throughout the British Commonwealth, especially in Scotland and Canada, and in the United States. In the twentieth century the Institution went into decline outside Northern Ireland. Observers have accused the Orange Institution of being a sectarian organisation, due to its goals and its exclusion of Roman Catholics as members.^[1] The Order also had and has a substantial fraternal and benevolent component.^[2]

Contents 1 Background 2 Foundation of the Order 3 Early years 4 Conflict and suppression 5 Revival 6 Role in the partition of Ireland 7 In Northern Ireland 8 Military contributions 9 References

[edit] Background

The Orange Order arose out of the division between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland. Sixteenth century attempts by the English to impose Protestantism on the Irish had been largely unsuccessful, and so the Irish speaking majority in Ireland, consisting of Gaelic Irish and the descendants of medieval English settlers, remained Catholic, in contrast to post-Reformation Planters from Britain, who were mostly Protestant. In the early seventeenth century the English, partly in response to an uprising based in Ulster, settled large numbers of English and Scottish Protestants in the province, a process known as the Plantation of Ulster.^[3] This changed Ulster from the most Catholic and Gaelic of the four Irish provinces^[4] to the most Protestant and British, although many Catholics remained. The two communities feared and resented each other, and when James II of England was overthrown by William of Orange in 1688 most Irish Catholics (in Ulster and elsewhere) continued to support James while the Protestants supported William. After initially fleeing to France, James arrived in Ireland in 1689 with French troops and money provided by Louis XIV, who was at war with William. Due partly to uncertainty as to who was the legitimate king, James' supporters (Jacobites) controlled most of Ireland, with the exception of Ulster. Here the Protestants held out for William, especially at Enniskillen and Derry, which were besieged by Jacobite forces. General Frederick Schomberg, 1st Duke of Schomberg and a small army were sent by William to Ireland, but they failed to make progress against the Jacobites. In 1690 William came to Ireland himself, and soon defeated James in the Battle of the Boyne. James fled again to France and although the Williamite War in Ireland was not resolved until the following year, William had achieved a decisive victory over James.

In England, William's overthrow of James is remembered as the Glorious Revolution, so called because in that country there was little bloodshed, and because it established significant limits on royal power. For many years the Revolution was seen as a major turning point in English and world history,^[5] as an important step towards democracy and against arbitrary government. In Ireland, William's defeat signalled the beginning of the Protestant Ascendancy. Although the Treaty of Limerick negotiated at the end of the war was in some ways generous towards the defeated Catholics,^[6] it was not properly ratified and was repeatedly broken by the Protestant-controlled Irish parliament. Ironically, the increased powers won for parliament in the Revolution meant that William was unable to prevent it from overturning the promises he had made in the Treaty.^[7] Subsequent penal laws barred Irish Catholics from most aspects of public life and reduced the majority to poverty.^[8] Although there were no uprisings or wars in Ireland in the hundred years after the Battle of the Boyne, there continued to be tension and some conflict between the Protestant and Catholic communities.

[edit] Foundation of the Order

The Orange Order has its direct roots in inter-communal violence of the 1790s. Secretive Catholic agrarian groups were active, including the Defenders,^[9] Protestant groups were formed to oppose the Catholic groups, one of which was the exclusively Anglican Peep O'Day Boys, who were to reorganise under a new name, the Orange Society.^[10]

After Protestant homes were attacked in Benburb, County Tyrone, on 24 June 1794, Freemason James Wilson,^[11] asked his fellow masons to help defend vulnerable Protestants. After being refused he left the Freemasons claiming that he "would light a star .... which would eclipse them forever". He had already organised the Orange Boys at the Dyan (County Tyrone) in 1792, as is evidenced by the notice in the Belfast News Letter on 1st February 1793, which referred to a meeting of the 138 members of the Orange Boys held on 22nd of January 1793."^[12]

Many of the Orange Order's terms and language are derived from Freemasonry (e.g. lodge, grand master,^[13] and degrees.^[14] The two movements have since grown apart; today the highest bodies in Freemasonry^[15] and the Orange Order^[16] specifically deny any connection between the two institutions.

The Orange Order proper was founded in Loughgall in County Armagh in 1795 after the Battle of the Diamond between the Catholic Defenders and the Protestant Peep O'Day Boys.^[17] James Wilson was joined by Daniel Winter and James Sloan.^[13]

[edit] Early years

Much of the Order's early activities involved opposition to the Society of the United Irishmen, a revolutionary organisation set up to abolish sectarian distinctions and to create an independent Irish republic. It was composed of Anglicans, Dissenters (i.e., non-Anglican Protestants, mainly Presbyterian), and Roman Catholics. The United Irishmen were violently opposed by the Orange Order.^{[citation needed]}

Shortly after the Order's establishment, the Governor of Armagh, Lord Gosford, gave his opinion of the new group to a meeting of magistrates: "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…" However, against the background of the seditious activity of the United Irishmen, the government backed the Orange Order from 1796. Thomas Knox, British military commander in Ulster, wrote in August 1796, "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."^[18]

The Order spread rapidly in mid-Ulster and many Orangemen found their way into the government militia and Yeomanry. For their part, the United Irishmen exacerbated Catholic fear of the Order by spreading fabricated rumours^{[citation needed]} of an "Orange extermination oath" to massacre all Catholics. Nevertheless, the order did expel up to 7000 Catholics from their homes in this period and by 1797, Henry Joy McCracken, the United Irish leader, was receiving word of the "barbarities committed on the country people in Moneymore, County Londonderry by the Yeomen and Orangemen."^[19]

Many Orangemen fought on the government side in the subsequent Irish Rebellion of 1798. Moreover, many were also involved in reprisal attacks after the rebellion, in which over 60 Catholic churches were burned. Such a reaction was fueled by some rebel atrocities against Protestants, such as the Scullabogue Barn massacre.^{[citation needed]} In the wake of the rebellion, once its usefulness had passed, the Orange Order was once again seen by the authorities primarily as a threat to public order.^{[citation needed]}

By the early nineteenth century, the Order had spread outside of Ireland, reaching England in 1807. In some areas, particularly around Liverpool, it was used by the Tories against the Liberals. The Order also spread to the United States, and Tim Pat Coogan argues that it “manifested itself” in movements as the Know Nothings and the Ku Klux Klan, and also proved useful to employers as a device for keeping Protestant and Catholic workers from “uniting for better wages and conditions.”^[20]

[edit] Conflict and suppression

In the early 19th century, much of the Order's activities were bound up with violent conflict with the Ribbonmen, a Catholic secret society.

A report from the time says:

"The 26th July, 1813 is memorable as the day on which a conflict occurred between Loyalists and Ribbonmen. The latter, who assembled to the number of 1500, attacked the house of a resident named Davidson, where the Orange Lodges were in the habit of meeting. The owner of the doomed premises, warned of their intentions, had a few trusty friends at hand to lend any necessary assistance. Three of the Ribbonmen were killed outright, while others, mortally wounded, died soon after. This did not end the trouble because a month later twelve men from the neighbourhood of Garvagh were charged before Judge Fletcher at Derry for murder. Three of the accused were acquitted and the others found guilty of manslaughter."

Of the acquittal a song says, "The Judge he then would us condemn Had it not been for the jurymen Our grateful thanks are due to them For they cleared the boys of Garvagh." The Ribbonmen were found guilty but were acquitted at a later assizes when it was stated "that both parties had become reconciled and were ready to give bail for their future good behaviour."^{[citation needed]}

The Orange Order, along with other organisations, was banned between 1823 and 1845 by the British government because of its involvement in sectarian violence in Ulster. Although they were then illegal the parades continued. In 1829, seven people were killed during disturbances in Clones, County Monaghan, and eight in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. The first Orange-related disturbances in Scotland were reported in 1830.

In 1834, Presbyterians were allowed to join. In 1835, a Parliamentary Committee set up to investigate the activities of the Order heard from a local magistrate, William Hancock, that:

"For some time past the peaceable inhabitants of the parish of Drumcree have been insulted and outraged by large bodies of Orangemen parading the highways, playing party tunes, firing shots, and using the most opprobrious epithets they could invent... a body of Orangemen marched through the town and proceeded to Drumcree church, passing by the Catholic chapel though it was a considerable distance out of their way."

In 1836, the British army used artillery to quell trouble at the annual gathering at Scarva, County Down.^{[citation needed]}

Many Orange songs of the 19th century period suggest that the Royal Irish Constabulary were sympathetic to the Thrashers and turned a blind eye to numerous skirmishes in County Down. In July 1849 near Castlewellan, County Down there was a skirmish shortly before the Battle of Dolly's Brae. This 'battle' took place on 12 July 1849 as the result of a parading dispute. At least 30 Catholics were killed in clashes between Ribbonmen and Orangemen. The British government banned Orange Order marches again after this incident. The Grand Master of the Order, Lord Roden, was forced to resign his position as a justice of the peace after it emerged that he incited the Orangemen before the incident at a gathering hosted on his estate nearby.

[edit] Revival

By the later 19th century, the Order was in decline. However, its fortunes were revived by the spread of Protestant opposition to Irish nationalist mobilisation in the Irish Land League and then around the question of Home Rule. Some Protestants perceived the Land War (sometimes violent agitation for the rights of tenant farmers) to be anti-Protestant, as most of the Landowning class were Protestants. As a result, the Orange Order, in October 1880, sent 50 labourers from counties Cavan and Monaghan to work the lands of Charles Boycott (who was being boycotted by his own tenants). They also established the Orange Emergency Committee in 1881, to oppose the Land league and to help landlords. These actions gave the Order greater appeal among the Ulster Protestant landed gentry and business community.^{[citation needed]}

The Order's revival was completed by the controversy over Home Rule (or self government for Ireland), which it virulently opposed on the grounds that Protestants would face discrimination in a Catholic dominated Ireland. Many of the Order's backers were also industrialists and valued the economic common market which the Act of Union guaranteed with Britain. In 1886, the Order was instrumental in the foundation of the Unionist Party, a coalition of former Liberal and Conservative Members of Parliament and an organisation named the Ulster Loyalist Anti-Repeal Union, in order to oppose the first Home Rule Bill.^[21] Between them, the Orange Order and the Unionist Party became mass organisations in Ulster, gaining the support of much of the Protestant population there. In 1886, William Ewart Gladstone's Home Rule Bill was before Parliament. The Bill was defeated in June, and serious rioting broke out in Ulster, continuing on into the marching season in July. By September, fifty people were dead, and thousands had been driven from their homes.^[22]

In 1894, the Order and the Unionists successfully opposed the Second Home Rule Bill, which was passed in the House of Commons but rejected by the House of Lords. British Prime Minister William Gladstone hinted at this time that special provision might need to be made for Ulster, a proposal that prefigured the subsequent partition of Ireland.^[23]

In the first decade of the twentieth century, the Order suffered a split, when Thomas Sloane left the organisation to set up the Independent Orange Order. Sloane had been suspended from the main Order after running against a Unionist candidate on a pro-labour platform in an election in 1902. The Independent Orange Order was initially more left wing than its parent organisation. By 1905, it had over 70 Lodges. However, its appeal was hurt by the suggestion of its first grand master, Lindsay Crawford, that unionists might accept Home Rule under certain circumstances. It later became associated with more traditional unionist politics, but remained critical of the close relationship between the Orange Order and the Unionist Party.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Role in the partition of Ireland

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In 1912, the Third Home Rule Bill was passed in the British House of Commons (though it was held up by the House of Lords for two further years). The Orange Order, along with Irish Unionists and the British Conservative Party, were forthright in opposing the Bill. The Order organised the 1912 Ulster Covenant a pledge to oppose Home Rule that was signed by up to 500,000 people.

In addition, in 1911 some Orangemen in County Tyrone had begun to arm themselves and engage in military training with the intention of resisting Home Rule. To facilitate this, several Justices of the Peace revived an old law permitting the formation of militias "for the purpose of maintaining the constitution of the United Kingdom as now established."^[24] This practice spread to other Orange lodges under the name Ulster Volunteers, and in 1913 the Ulster Unionist Council decided to bring these groups under central control, creating the Ulster Volunteer Force, a militia dedicated to resisting Home Rule. There was a strong overlap between Orange Lodges and UVF units. A large shipment of rifles was imported from Germany to arm them in April 1914 in what became known as the Larne Gun Running. Civil war looked likely to break out between the Ulster Volunteers and the nationalist Irish Volunteers. However, the crisis was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 and the temporary suspension of the Home Rule Act placed on the statute books with Royal Assent. 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.

After the war, the south of Ireland became embroiled in the Irish War of Independence (1919-1921), which pitted the Irish Republican Army against British state forces. The Orange Order appealed for Protestant unity in this period, condemning militant labour action such as strike for a 40 hour week in Belfast in 1919. In addition, some members of the Order were involved in paramilitary activities against nationalists. The leader of the Ulster Volunteer Force, Wilfrid Spender, wrote to James Craig in 1920, "Some of the Orange Lodges have decided that the UVF is too slow and have decided to raise a special force of their own."^[25] Many Orangemen were subsequently recruited into the Ulster Special Constabulary, an Auxiliary, mostly Protestant police force. Many of them were allegedly involved in attacks on Catholics, in which over 350 people were killed in the period 1920-1922.

The Fourth Home Rule Act was passed as the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the north eastern part of Ulster was partitioned from Southern Ireland as Northern Ireland. This self governing entity within the United Kingdom was confirmed under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. Southern Ireland became first the Irish Free State then in 1949 the Republic of Ireland.

[edit] In Northern Ireland

The Orange Order had a central place in the new state of Northern Ireland. It acted as a basis for the unity of Protestants of all classes and as a mass social and political grouping. At its peak in 1965, the Order's membership was around 70,000, which meant that roughly 1 in 5 adult Protestant males were members.^[26][27][28]

It had very close ties to the ruling Unionist Party and the senior leadership of both frequently overlapped. James Craig said in 1934, "I am an Orangeman first and a politician and a member of parliament second." Membership of the Order was also useful in obtaining jobs and public housing. The Order's principal commemoration on the 12th of July was made a public holiday and in effect, Northern Ireland's national day.

The Orange Order began to lose influence in the 1960s, when it came into conflict with a movement towards modernization and a reduction in sectarianism led by Prime Minister Terence O'Neill. Although the Order's leadership remained supportive of O'Neill as a fellow Orangeman, many rank and file members opposed his programme and his supporters suffered heckling at Orange Order events. One MP, George Forrest was kicked unconscious by spectators at the 1967 Twelfth. Cabinet Minister Phelim O'Neill quit the Order rather than have it discipline him over his attendance at a Catholic ceremony, becoming one of only four Stormont Cabinet Ministers in history not to belong to the Order. The Order was also challenged from the other side by Ian Paisley and his followers, who accused the Order of being insufficiently opposed to Catholicism, humanism and ecumenism. Since 1965 membership has gone into decline, notably in Belfast and Derry. There was a membership spike following the beginning of the Troubles, but most new members who signed up did not remain long.^[26]

The Order's political influence suffered greatly when the Unionist-dominated Stormont parliament was prorogued in 1972.^[26] Since then the Order has existed primarily as a pressure group, although many Ulster Unionist Party MPs and officials are members of the Order. The Order also suffered considerably in the Troubles, although the majority of murdered Orangemen were killed as members of the security forces rather than as Orangemen per se. Numerous Orange halls have been subject to arson and other vandalism, with some requiring heavy security and being uninsurable.

Traditionally, the Orange Order was affiliated with the institutions of establishment Unionism: the Ulster Unionist Party, Royal Ulster Constabulary, and Church of Ireland. It had a fractious relationship with the Democratic Unionist Party, Protestant paramilitaries, 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.^[26]

To this day, according to Tim Pat Coogan, Orangemen still overlook the papal input to the creation of their icon William of Orange.^[29] However at least one Orange publication has mentioned the Pope's support for William,^[30] and so it would be wrong to assume that Orangemen in general are ignorant of the Pope's role.

[edit] Military contributions

Orangemen have fought in numerous wars, including the War of 1812, the Crimean War, the Indian Mutiny and the Second Boer War. Able Seaman Bro William George Vincent Williams of LOL 92 Melbourne, was the first Australian to be killed in the war. The Institution's most notable military contribution was on the first day (1 July) of the Battle of the Somme, 1916. Many Orangemen had joined the 36th (Ulster) Division which had been formed from various Ulster regiments and had also amalgamated Lord Edward Carson's Ulster Volunteers (who were formed to oppose Home Rule for Ireland) into its ranks. But for the outbreak of World War I, Ireland had been on the brink of civil war, as Orangemen had helped to smuggle thousands of rifles from Imperial Germany (see Larne Gun Running). Several hundred Glasgow Orangemen crossed to Belfast in September 1914, to join the 36th (Ulster) Division. Roughly 5000 members of the Division were casualties on the first day of the battle. Orangemen also fought in World War II and subsequent conflicts, and many served in the Ulster Defence Regiment during the Northern Irish Troubles, particularly during the 1970s and 1980s. At least five Orangemen have been awarded the Victoria Cross: George Richardson, in the Indian Mutiny; Robert Hanna, Robert Quigg^[31] and Abraham Acton during World War I; and Rev. John Weir Foote in World War II.^{[citation needed]}

Numerous lodges have been formed by serving soldiers during various conflicts, with varying levels of official approval. In September 2007 there was controversy when a photograph of British soldiers in Iraq, wearing Orange sashes and carrying a banner reading 'Rising Sons of Basra', appeared in the Ulster Volunteer Force magazine The Purple Standard.^[32]

[edit] References