{{Short description|Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland}} {{about|the Northern Ireland order|Dutch dynastic knighthood|Order of the House of Orange|Dutch chivalric order|Order of Orange-Nassau|others|Order of Orange}} {{Use Hiberno-English|date=December 2024}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2026}}
{{Infobox fraternity | name = Loyal Orange Institution | image_size = 180px | alt = | caption = | founded = {{start date and age|df=yes|1795|9|21}} | birthplace = Loughgall, County Armagh, <br>Kingdom of Ireland | type = Fraternal order | affiliation = Independent | emphasis = Protestant | scope = International | colors = {{color box|#FF8F00}} Orange and {{color box|#7B14BB}} Purple | flag = 180px | status = Active | chapters = 1,400 lodges | nickname = Orange Order | location = | city = Belfast | province = Northern Ireland | country = United Kingdom | website = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} --> }}{{Conservatism UK|Organisations}}
The '''Loyal Orange Institution''', commonly known as the '''Orange Order''', is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants. It also has lodges in England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland, as well as in parts of the Commonwealth of Nations, including West Africa, and the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Page |first=Chris |date=30 August 2015 |title=Orange Order on the equator: Keeping the faith in Ghana |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-34088527 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210719125954/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-34088527 |archive-date=19 July 2021 |access-date=16 May 2017 |publisher=BBC |language=en |quote=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.}}</ref><ref name="BenedettoMcKim2009">{{Cite book |last1=Benedetto |first1=Robert |title=Historical Dictionary of the Reformed Churches |last2=McKim |first2=Donald K. |date=6 October 2009 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-7023-9 |page=353 |quote=Most of the organization's lodges are located in [Northern] Ireland, England, and Scotland. However, 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.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Welcome to the Grand Orange Lodge |url=http://www.grandorangelodge.co.uk/what-is-the-orange-order#.UZO8UcqyEsw |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006071605/http://www.grandorangelodge.co.uk/what-is-the-orange-order#.UZO8UcqyEsw |archive-date=6 October 2014 |access-date=15 May 2013 |publisher=Orange Order |quote=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.}}</ref>
The Orange Order was founded by Ulster Protestants in County Armagh in 1795, during a period of Protestant–Catholic sectarian conflict, as a fraternity sworn to maintain the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Orange Order, 1795-1995 {{!}} History Today |url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/orange-order-1795-1995 |access-date=2026-03-25 |website=www.historytoday.com}}</ref> The all-island Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland was established in 1798. Its name is a tribute to the Dutch-born Protestant king William of Orange, who defeated the Catholic English king James II in the Williamite–Jacobite War (1689{{ndash}}1691).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Battle of the Boyne {{!}} National Army Museum |url=https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/battle-boyne |access-date=2026-03-25 |website=www.nam.ac.uk |language=en}}</ref> The Order is best known for its yearly marches, the biggest of which are held on or around 12 July (The Twelfth), a public holiday in Northern Ireland.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Moore |first=Cormac |date=2024-08-13 |title=Make Twelfth A Bank Holiday – On This Day in 1924 |url=https://www.irishnews.com/news/northern-ireland/make-twelfth-a-bank-holiday-on-this-day-in-1924-Z4Q4IVN5AJAONPLKF3X73RQFBU/ |access-date=2026-03-25 |website=The Irish News |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=FPC |first=Carryduff |date=2025-07-08 |title=The Reason Why We Celebrate The Twelfth of July |url=https://carrydufffpc.org/the-reason-why-we-celebrate-the-twelfth-of-july/ |access-date=2026-03-25 |website=Carryduff Free Presbyterian Church |language=en-GB}}</ref>
The Orange Order is a conservative, British unionist<ref>{{Cite web |title=Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland {{!}} Fraternal Organisation {{!}} Belfast |url=https://www.goli.org.uk/ |access-date=2024-07-08 |website=Orange Order |language=en}}</ref><ref>[http://www.grandorangelodge.co.uk/twelfthresolutions.aspx# Twelfth Resolutions 2013] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141028164322/http://www.grandorangelodge.co.uk/twelfthresolutions.aspx |date=28 October 2014 }}. Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland. Retrieved 12 July 2014.</ref> and Ulster loyalist<ref>Smithey, Lee. ''Unionists, Loyalists, and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland''. Oxford University Press, 2011. p.56</ref><ref>McAuley, James. ''Very British Rebels?: The Culture and Politics of Ulster Loyalism''. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015. p.98</ref> organisation. Thus it has traditionally opposed Irish nationalism/republicanism and campaigned against Scottish independence.<ref name="bbc.co.uk">[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-28020183 "Scottish independence: Orange Lodge registers to campaign for a 'No' vote"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180716180502/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-28020183 |date=16 July 2018 }}. BBC News. 25 June 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2014.</ref> The Order sees itself as defending Protestant civil and religious liberties, whilst critics accuse it of being sectarian,<ref>{{cite journal|title=Towards a religious understanding of the Orange Order: Belfast 1910 to 1914|first=D.H.|last=Govan|journal=Irish Studies Review|volume=29|issue=4|year=2021|pages=501–514|doi=10.1080/09670882.2021.1976445|s2cid=238584932 |quote=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.|doi-access=free}}</ref> triumphalist,<ref>{{Cite news |date=12 July 2010 |title=Orangemen take part in Twelfth of July parades |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10592915 |url-status=live |access-date=25 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100717043459/http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10592915 |archive-date=17 July 2010 |quote=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.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=30 May 2009 |title=Protestant fraternity returns to spiritual home |work=Reuters |url=http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE54T1LP20090530 |url-status=dead |access-date=25 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200920200359/https://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE54T1LP20090530 |archive-date=20 September 2020 |quote=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.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=27 April 2000 |title=Ormeau Road frustration |url=http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/33821 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120128134827/http://www.anphoblacht.com/news/detail/33821 |archive-date=28 January 2012 |access-date=25 August 2010 |website=An Phoblacht |quote=The overwhelming majority of nationalists view Orange parades as triumphalist coat trailing exercises.}}</ref><ref name="irishcentral">{{Cite web |date=23 July 2009 |title=Kinder, gentler or same old Orange? |url=http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/Kinder-gentler-or-same-old-Orange-50952382.html?page=1 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111114175728/http://www.irishcentral.com/opinion/Kinder-gentler-or-same-old-Orange-50952382.html?page=1 |archive-date=14 November 2011 |access-date=25 August 2010 |website=Irish Central |quote=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 symbolise 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.}}</ref> and supremacist.<ref name="irishcentral" /><ref name="Connolly">{{Cite book |last=Connolly |first=Sean J |title=Divided kingdom: Ireland, 1630–1800 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2008 |page=432 |quote=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.}}</ref><ref name="Roe">{{Cite book |last=Roe |first=Paul |title=Ethnic violence and the societal security dilemma |publisher=Routledge |year=2005 |page=62 |quote=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.}}</ref><ref name="Wilson">{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Ron |title=A flower grows in Ireland |publisher=University Press of Mississippi |year=1976 |page=127 |chapter=Is it a religious war? |quote=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}}</ref> It does not accept non-Protestants as members unless they convert and adhere to its principles, nor does it accept Protestants married to non-Protestants.<ref name="auto">"... No catholic and no-one whose close relatives are catholic may be a member." Northern Ireland The Orange State, Michael Farrell</ref><ref name="ExplainingNI">{{Cite book |last1=McGarry, John |title=Explaining Northern Ireland: Broken Images |last2=O'Leary, Brendan |publisher=Blackwell Publishers |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-631-18349-5 |page=180 |name-list-style=amp}}</ref><ref name="TOM">{{Cite web |last=Lynch |first=Paul |date=31 October 2005 |title=Perspective – The Orange Marches |url=http://www.abc.net.au/rn/perspective/stories/2006/1776931.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110921231610/http://www.abc.net.au/rn/perspective/stories/2006/1776931.htm |archive-date=21 September 2011 |access-date=28 May 2013 |publisher=Australian Broadcasting Commission}}</ref> Orange marches through Catholic neighbourhoods are controversial and have on occasion, led to violence,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Curtis |first=Jennifer |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oyw6BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA122 |title=Human Rights as War by Other Means: Peace Politics in Northern Ireland |date=2014 |isbn=9780812209877 |page=122 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |quote=Loyal (Protestant) orders, the largest being the Orange Order, hold the most well-known and controversial parades.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Reardon |first=Lawrence C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-8gqfwcbTaAC&pg=PA126 |title=The Catholic Church and the Nation-State: Comparative Perspectives |date=2006 |isbn=1589017242 |page=126 |publisher=Georgetown University Press |quote=The 'Marching Days' beginning on July 12 each year ... are considered highlights of the Protestant calendar. A few of these marches wind their way past some Catholic enclaves, a move considered provocative by some nationalists, that ensures resistance, trouble and, occasionally, violence.}}</ref> such as the Drumcree conflict.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-07-08 |title=Drumcree: The Garvaghy Road dispute 25 years on |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-66133970 |access-date=2026-03-25 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref>
==History== {{Main|History of the Orange Order}}
[[File:Sandy Row mural 2012.png|right|upright=1.25|thumb|A mural in Belfast, commemorating William of Orange and the Battle of the Boyne]]
The Orange Order celebrates the civil and religious privileges conferred on Protestants by William of Orange, the {{lang|nl|Stadtholder}} of the Dutch Republic who became King of England, Scotland, and Ireland in the Glorious Revolution of 1688.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Prince of Orange's declaration: 19 December 1688 {{!}} British History Online |url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/commons-jrnl/vol10/pp1-6 |access-date=2026-03-25 |website=www.british-history.ac.uk}}</ref> The Order regularly commemorates the victories of William III and his forces during the Williamite War in Ireland in the early 1690s, especially the Battle of the Boyne.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Williamite War 1689-91(1:1) – History Ireland |url=https://historyireland.com/the-williamite-war-1689-9111/ |access-date=2026-03-25 |website=historyireland.com}}</ref>
===Formation and early years=== 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.<ref name="McBride">{{Cite book |last=Ian McBride |title=History and Memory in Modern Ireland |date=8 November 2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=0-521-79366-1}}</ref><ref name="Lenihan">{{Cite book |last=Lenihan |first=Padraig |title=1690 Battle of the Boyne |date=2003 |publisher=Tempus |isbn=9780752425979 |pages=258–259}}</ref> These followed a tradition started in Elizabethan England of celebrating key events in the Protestant calendar.<ref name="McBride" /> 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.<ref name="McBride" />
====Armagh disturbances==== {{Main|Armagh disturbances}}
Throughout the 1780s, sectarian tension had been building in County Armagh, largely due to the relaxation of the Penal Laws.<ref name="Bardon">{{Cite book |last=Bardon |first=James |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofulster00jona |title=A History of Ulster: New Updated Edition |publisher=Blackstaff Press |year=2005 |isbn=0-85640-764-X |edition=2 |pages=227}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Bardon" /> Drunken brawls between rival gangs had by 1786 become openly sectarian.<ref name="Bardon" /> 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.<ref name="Bardon" />
====Battle of the Diamond==== {{main|Battle of the Diamond}}
In September 1795, at a crossroads known as "The Diamond" near Loughgall, Defenders and Protestant Peep o' Day Boys gathered to fight each other.<ref name="Bardon" /> 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.<ref name="Bardon" /> When a contingent of Defenders from County Tyrone arrived on 21 September, however, they were "determined to fight".<ref name="Bardon" /> The Peep o' Day Boys quickly regrouped and opened fire on the Defenders.<ref name="Bardon" /> According to William Blacker, the battle was short. The Defenders suffered "not less than thirty" deaths.<ref name="Bardon" />
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.<ref name="Bardon" /> The principal pledge of these lodges was to defend "the King and his heirs so long as he or they support the Protestant Ascendancy".<ref name="Bardon" /> 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.<ref name="Bardon" />
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.<ref name="Bardon" /> 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".<ref name="Bardon" /> 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".<ref name="Bardon" /> Within two months, 7,000 Catholics had been driven out of County Armagh.<ref name="Bardon" /> According to Lord Gosford, the governor of Armagh:
{{blockquote|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.<ref name="Bardon" />}}
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.<ref>William Blacker, Robert Hugh Wallace, ''The formation of the Orange Order, 1795–1798'': Education Committee of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, 1994 {{ISBN|0-9501444-3-6}}, {{ISBN|978-0-9501444-3-6}} Pg 37</ref> According to historian Jim Smyth:<blockquote>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.<ref>''The Men of No Popery: The Origins of The Orange Order'', Jim Smyth, History Ireland Vol 3 No 3 Autumn 1995</ref></blockquote>
The Order's three main founders were James Wilson (founder of the Orange Boys), Daniel Winter and James Sloan.<ref name="original">"James Wilson and James Sloan, who along with 'Diamond' Dan Winter, issued the first Orange lodge warrants from Sloan's Loughgall inn, were masons." [http://homepages.iol.ie/~fagann/1798/orange.htm The Men of no Popery, The Origins Of The Orange Order] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120610203136/http://homepages.iol.ie/~fagann/1798/orange.htm |date=10 June 2012 }}, by Jim Smyth, from History Ireland Vol 3 No 3 Autumn 1995</ref> The first Orange lodge was established in nearby Dyan, and its first grandmaster was James Sloan of Loughgall.<ref>''A New Dictionary of Irish History from 1800'', D.J. Hickey & J.E. Doherty, Gill & Macmillan, Dublin 2003, {{ISBN|0-7171-2520-3}} pg375</ref> 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.<ref>McCormack, W J. ''The Blackwell Companion to Modern Irish Culture''. Wiley-Blackwell, 2001. Page 317.</ref>
====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.<ref name="the1994">The Cause of Ireland: From the United Irishmen to Partition, Liz Curtis, Beyond the Pale Publications, Belfast, 1994, {{ISBN|0-9514229-6-0}} pg.9</ref>
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".<ref name="TAJ">Thomas A Jackson, ''Ireland Her Own'', page 142–3</ref> Mitchel wrote that the government invented and spread "fearful rumours of intended massacres of all the Protestant people by the Catholics".<ref name="John Mitchel-Vol I-p223">Mitchel, John. ''History of Ireland, from the Treaty of Limerick to the Present Time: Vol I''. 1869. Page 223.</ref> 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".<ref name="John Mitchel-Vol I-p223" /> 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".<ref name="the1994" /><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Bartlett |first1=Thomas |title=The 1798 Rebellion: An Illustrated History |last2=Dawson |first2=Kevin |last3=Keogh |first3=Dáire |publisher=Roberts Rinehart Publishers |year=1998 |isbn=978-1-57098-255-2 |location=Boulder, Colorado |page=44 |oclc=40625473 |author-link=Thomas Bartlett (historian) |author-link3=Dáire Keogh}}</ref>
The United Irishmen saw the Defenders as potential allies, and between 1794 and 1796 they formed a coalition.<ref name="FourNations">Welsh, Frank: ''The Four Nations: A History of the United Kingdom'', page 230–1</ref> Despite some seeing the Defenders as "ignorant and poverty-stricken houghers and rick-burners",<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=David A. |title=United Irishmen, United States: Immigrant Radicals in the Early Republic |date=1998 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=978-0801434051 |pages=24}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Bardon" />
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".<ref name="Bardon" /> 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.<ref name="Bardon" /> However, massacres by the rebels in County Wexford "did much to dampen" the rebellion in Ulster.<ref name="Bardon" /> The Scullabogue Barn massacre saw over 100 non-combatant (mostly Protestant) men, women, and children imprisoned in a barn which was then set alight,<ref name="Dunne">{{Cite book|last1=Dunne|first1= Tom|title=Rebellions: Memoir, Memory and 1798|publisher=The Lilliput Press|year= 2004|ISBN=978-1-84351-039-0}}</ref> with the Catholic and Protestant<ref name="gahan">{{Cite journal |last=Gahan |first=D. |date=1996 |title=The Scullabogue Massacre, 1798 |url=http://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/the-scullabogue-massacre-1798/ |journal=History Ireland |volume=4 |issue=3 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209123548/http://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/the-scullabogue-massacre-1798/ |archive-date=2021-02-09}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Dunne" /> In the trials that followed the massacres, evidence was recorded of anti-Orange sentiments being expressed by the rebels at Scullabogue.<ref name="Dunne" /> 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.<ref name="Bardon" />
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.<ref name="Bardon" /> The sectarian attacks on them were so severe that Grand Masters of the Orange Order convened to find ways of reducing them.<ref name="Bardon" /> 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.<ref>Ruth Dudley Edwards: ''The Faithful Tribe'', pages 236–237. Harper Collins, London, 2000.</ref><ref>William Blacker, Robert Hugh Wallace, ''The formation of the Orange Order, 1795–1798'': Education Committee of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, 1994 {{ISBN|0-9501444-3-6}}, {{ISBN|978-0-9501444-3-6}} Pg 139–140</ref>
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.<ref name="Bardon" />
===Suppression=== [[File:Dollysbrae Road - geograph.org.uk - 100732.jpg|thumb|right|Dolly's Brae, site of the "Battle of Dolly's Brae" (1849) between Orangemen and Catholic Ribbonmen]]
In the early 19th 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".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Murder in Ireland. (7 October 1816). ''Boston Commercial Gazette'' |url=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3562/3410213113_a106a44149_o.jpg |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111114184527/http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3562/3410213113_a106a44149_o.jpg |archive-date=14 November 2011 |access-date=4 April 2009}}</ref>
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 the Protestant Ascendancy. From this moment on, the Orange Order re-emerged in a new and even more militant form.<ref>Tony Gray ''The Orange Order'', Rodley Head London (1972), pp. 103–106 {{ISBN|0-370-01340-9}}</ref> In 1835 Parliament conducted an enquiry into Orangeism and declared the oaths of the Orange Order to be illegal and prohibited their demonstrations and parades.<ref>Boyd, Andrew (1984), ''Northern Ireland: Who is to Blame?'', The Mercier Press Limited, Dublin, pgs. 27. ISBN 0 85342 708 9</ref>
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.<ref>"The Cumberland Plot", ''New Zealand Tablet'', Volume XXIX, Issue 5, 31 January 1901, Page 3</ref> 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.<ref>Murphy, James H. Abject Loyalty: Nationalism and Monarchy in Ireland During the Reign of Queen Victoria The Catholic University of America Press (2001) p18</ref>
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".<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=ORANGE LODGES. (Hansard, 23 February 1836, pp 801-803) |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1836/feb/23/orange-lodges |access-date=2021-10-03 |website=api.parliament.uk}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Royal Black Institution » Sovereign Grand Masters |url=http://royalblack.org/mission-statement/sovereign-grand-masters/ |access-date=2023-01-28 |language=en-US}}</ref> 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".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bew |first=Paul |title=Ireland: the Politics of Enmity |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2007 |isbn=9780198205555 |pages=264}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":6">{{Cite news |date=10 July 2017 |title=William Johnston, firebrand who rid Orangemen of hated Westminster legislation |url=https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/william-johnston-firebrand-who-rid-orangemen-hated-westminster-legislation-1102380 |work=News Letter}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bardon |first=Jonathan |title=A History of Ulster |publisher=The Blackstaff Press |year=1992 |isbn=0856404667 |location=Belfast |pages=355}}</ref> The following year, as the standard bearer of United Protestant Working Men's Association of Ulster, Johnston was returned to Parliament for Belfast.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Bardon |first=Jonathan |title=Belfast, An Illustrated History |publisher=Blsckstaff Press |year=1982 |isbn=0856402729 |location=Belfast |pages=143–144}}</ref>
===Revival === By the late 19th century, the Order was in decline. However, its fortunes were revived in the 1880s after its embrace by the landlords in opposition to both the Irish Land League, presided over by nationalist leader Charles Stuart Parnell, and Home Rule.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=George Boyce |first1=D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0-iGAgAAQBAJ&q=orange+order+land+league&pg=PA119 |title=Defenders of the Union |last2=O'Day |first2=Alan |date=4 January 2002 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781134687435 |access-date=26 April 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Jess |first=Mervyn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c2WNAwAAQBAJ&q=orange+order+land+league&pg=PT26 |title=The Orange Order |date=4 October 2012 |publisher=The O'Brien Press |isbn=9781847175113 |access-date=26 April 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=History Of The Shankill Road |url=http://historyofshankillroad.weebly.com/orange-order.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427140245/http://historyofshankillroad.weebly.com/orange-order.html |archive-date=27 April 2016 |access-date=26 April 2016}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Orange Order: an enemy of ALL workers - Workers Solidarity Movement |url=http://www.wsm.ie/c/orange-order-history-parades |access-date=26 April 2016}}</ref> In response to Gladstone's first Irish Home Rule Bill 1886, Colonel Edward Saunderson, a landowner who had represented Cavan as a Liberal and who had ridiculed the order's "big drums",<ref>{{Cite web |last=Maune |first=Patrick |date=2009 |title=Saunderson, Edward James {{!}} Dictionary of Irish Biography |url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/saunderson-edward-james-a7929 |access-date=2024-02-20 |website=www.dib.ie |language=en}}</ref> donned an Orange sash. Saunderson, who went on to lead the Irish Unionist Alliance at Westminster, had concluded that "the Orange society is alone capable of dealing with the condition of anarchy and rebellion which prevail in Ireland".<ref>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</ref>
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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CRIME AND OUTRAGE (IRELAND)— THE RIOTS IN BELFAST—REMEDIAL MEASURES. (Hansard, 2 September 1886) |url=https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1886/sep/02/crime-and-outrage-ireland-the-riots-in |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=api.parliament.uk}}</ref><ref name="google">{{Cite book |last=Flewelling |first=Lindsey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UThxDwAAQBAJ |title=Two Irelands Beyond the Sea: Ulster Unionism and America, 1880-1920 |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-78694-045-2 |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|139}} RIC 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.<ref name="Bardon2">Jonathon Bardon (2001), ''A History of Ulster'', Belfast: The Blackstaff Press, p. 381.</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite news |date=27 August 1896 |title=The Belfast Disorders |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1886/08/27/103975483.html?zoom=14.950000000000001 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>
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.<ref name="Mac Póilin">{{cite book |last1=Mac Póilin |first1=Aodán |title=Our Tangled Speech: Essays on Language and Culture |publisher=Ulster Historical Foundation |year=2018 |isbn=9781909556676 |location=Belfast |pages=134–137}}</ref>{{rp|135–137}}As 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.<ref name="greatplacenorthbelfast">{{Cite web |date=2021-10-19 |title=Painting of Rev. Dr. Richard Rutledge Kane (1841-98) -Belfast Orange Hall |url=https://greatplacenorthbelfast.com/project/painting-of-rev-dr-richard-rutledge-kane-1841-98-belfast-orange-hall/ |access-date=2024-02-16 |website=Great Place |language=en}}</ref><ref name="Mac Póilin" />{{rp|190}}<ref name="greatwargaeilgeoiri2">{{Cite web |title=The Gaelic Revival Movement in East Belfast – Great War Gaeilgeoirí of East Belfast |url=https://www.greatwargaeilgeoiri.org.uk/history/gaelic-revival-movement-in-east-belfast/ |access-date=2021-03-14 |language=en-GB}}</ref> The Branch president was Kane's parishioner, Dr. John St Clair Boyd.<ref name="greatwargaeilgeoiri2"/> There was a time, historian Brian Kennaway remarks, when Orangemen, still regarding themselves as Irish patriots, "had no problem with the Irish language".<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kennaway |first=Brian |date=19 April 2017 |title=Orangemen in the past had no problem with the Irish language |url=https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/politics/orangemen-in-the-past-had-no-problem-with-the-irish-language-1131062 |work=News Letter}}</ref> (Kane's memorial at the Clifton Street Orange Hall over whose opening he had presided in 1885, commends him as a "Loyal Irish Patriot").<ref name="greatplacenorthbelfast2">{{Cite web |date=2021-10-19 |title=Painting of Rev. Dr. Richard Rutledge Kane (1841-98) -Belfast Orange Hall |url=https://greatplacenorthbelfast.com/project/painting-of-rev-dr-richard-rutledge-kane-1841-98-belfast-orange-hall/ |access-date=2024-02-16 |website=Great Place |language=en}}</ref>
=== 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Marlow |first=Joyce |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wW4uAAAAMAAJ&q=Captain+Boycott |title=Captain Boycott and the Irish |publisher=André Deutsch |year=1973 |isbn=0-233-96430-4 |pages=143–155}}</ref> 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".<ref>Hammond, J. L. (1964), ''Gladstone and the Irish Nation'', 2nd Revised Edition London: Frank Cass, p. 3, n. 1. ISBN 978-0714614793</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McMinn |first=R. B. |date=1983 |title=The Land League in North Antrim 1880–1882 |url=https://antrimhistory.net/the-land-league-in-north-antrim-1880-82/ |journal=The Glynns |volume=11 |via=Glens of Antrim Historical Society}}</ref><ref>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.</ref>
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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Morrissey |first=Conor |date=2017 |title=Rotten Protestants: Protestant Home Rules and the Ulster Liberal Association, 1906–1918 |journal=The Historical Journal |language=en |volume=61 |issue=3 |pages=743–765 |doi=10.1017/S0018246X1700005X |s2cid=148801140|url=https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/9ac238d2-7766-4293-aedc-0c62d4e3cfee }}</ref>
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".<ref>''Weekly Northern Whig'', 21 May 1870.</ref> Others within the Order regarded such unity as tantamount to religious and national ecumenism.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wright |first=Frank |date=1973 |title=Protestant Ideology and Politics in Ulster |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23998722 |journal=European Journal of Sociology / Archives Européennes de Sociologie / Europäisches Archiv für Soziologie |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=(213–280) 215 |doi=10.1017/S0003975600002745 |issn=0003-9756 |jstor=23998722 |s2cid=146541077|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 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).<ref>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.</ref>
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").<ref name="Courtney">{{Cite book |last=Courtney |first=Roger |title=Dissenting Voices: Rediscovering the Irish Progressive Presbyterian Tradition |date=2013 |publisher=Ulster Historical Society |isbn=9781909556065 |location=Belfast |pages=286–287}}</ref> 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.<ref>Collins, Peter (1998). "Larkin, James", S.J. Connolly, The Oxford Companion to Irish History. Oxford University Press. p. 302</ref>
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).<ref name="Dempsey & Boylan">{{Cite web |last1=Dempsey |first1=Pauric |last2=Boylan |first2=Shaun |title=Crawford, (Robert) Lindsay |url=https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a2163 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201130173712/https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a2163 |archive-date=30 November 2020 |access-date=14 December 2020 |website=Dictionary of Irish Biography |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Courtney" />
===Role in the partition of Ireland=== [[File:12 July in Belfast, 2011 (130).JPG|thumb|An Orange banner showing the signing of the Ulster Covenant]] 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.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Orange Order votes to sever ties with UUP |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/orange-order-votes-to-sever-ties-with-uup-1.1174784 |access-date=2024-02-20 |newspaper=The Irish Times |language=en}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Orange Order | Irish political society | Britannica |date=27 September 2023 |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Orange-Order}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=December 2015 |title=About the Ulster Covenant | nidirect |url=https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/about-ulster-covenant#toc-2}}</ref> The Order helped to organise the 1912 Ulster Covenant – a pledge to oppose Home Rule which was signed by up to 500,000 people.<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 2015 |title=About the Ulster Covenant | nidirect |url=https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/about-ulster-covenant#toc-5}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |date=11 February 2013 |title=The Ulster Volunteers 1913-1914: Force or farce? |url=https://www.historyireland.com/the-ulster-volunteers-1913-1914-force-or-farce/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Descendancy |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2014 |isbn=9781139946650 |pages=21–40 |chapter=Orangeism and Irish military history |doi=10.1017/CBO9781139946650.004 |chapter-url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/abs/descendancy/orangeism-and-irish-military-history/CBB997CA55DDF8F90664F0A28C213160}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite news |date=9 July 2012 |title=Who are the Orangemen? |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-18769781}}</ref>
The Fourth Home Rule Act was passed as the Government of Ireland Act 1920; the six northeastern counties of Ulster became Northern Ireland and the other twenty-six counties became Southern Ireland. This time period saw intense cross community conflict/violence which took place intermittently and mostly in Belfast.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theirishstory.com/2020/10/27/the-dead-of-the-belfast-pogrom-counting-the-cost-of-the-revolutionary-period-1920-22/ |title=The Dead of the Belfast Pogrom |last=Glennon |first=Kieran |date=27 October 2020 |website=The Irish Story |publisher= |access-date=25 March 2024 |quote=}}</ref> (see The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922)) This self-governing entity within the United Kingdom was confirmed in its status under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921, and in its borders by the Boundary Commission agreement of 1925. Southern Ireland became first the Irish Free State in 1922 and then in 1949 a Republic.
===Since 1921=== [[File:Sir James Craig 1924 (crop).jpg|thumb|upright|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.<ref>Harbinson, John. ''The Ulster Unionist Party, 1882–1973''. Blackstaff Press, 1973. pp. 90–91</ref> 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"<ref>{{Cite web |title=THE BLANKET * Index: Current Articles |url=http://indiamond6.ulib.iupui.edu:81/faithandpol.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304083435/http://indiamond6.ulib.iupui.edu:81/faithandpol.html |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=26 April 2016}}</ref> in a debate about protests against Protestant woman Letitia Dunbar-Harrison being appointed as County Librarian in County Mayo.<ref>{{Cite web |date=17 January 2009 |title=Church pays the price for its history of sectarianism and blind arrogance |url=http://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/ryle-dwyer/church-pays-the-price-for-its-history-of-sectarianism-and-blind-arrogance-82154.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111025190337/http://irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/ryle-dwyer/church-pays-the-price-for-its-history-of-sectarianism-and-blind-arrogance-82154.html |archive-date=25 October 2011 |access-date=26 April 2016}}</ref> 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".<ref>''Ireland: A History from the Twelfth Century to the Present Day'', Paul Johnson, HarperCollins Ltd; New (1981), {{ISBN|0-586-05453-7}}, 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), {{ISBN|0-7190-7744-3}}, Pg.28, ''Orange Parades: The Politics of Ritual, Tradition and Control'', Dominic Bryan, Pluto Press, (2000), {{ISBN|0-7453-1413-9}}, Pg.66</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=CAIN: Susan McKay (2000) Northern Protestants: An Unsettled People |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/people/accounts/mckay00.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207075749/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/people/accounts/mckay00.htm |archive-date=7 December 2010 |access-date=31 October 2008 |publisher=Cain.ulst.ac.uk}}</ref><ref>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".</ref>
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.<ref name="orange">{{Cite web |last=Kaufmann |first=Eric |year=2007 |title=The Orange Order: A Contemporary Northern Irish History |url=http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199208487 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070224204430/http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199208487 |archive-date=24 February 2007 |publisher=Oxford University Press |df=dmy-all}} {{cite web | title = The Orange Order: A Contemporary Northern Irish History – Maps & Charts | publisher = Oxford University Press | url = http://www.sneps.net/OO/bk1maps.htm | access-date = 20 September 2006 | archive-date = 5 January 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090105220759/http://www.sneps.net/OO/bk1maps.htm | url-status = live }} {{Cite web | author = Kaufmann, E. | title = The Orange Order in Ontario, Newfoundland, Scotland and Northern Ireland: A Macro-Social Analysis | publisher = The Orange Order in Canada; Dublin: Four Courts | year = 2006 | url = http://www.sneps.net/OO/papers.html | format = PDF | access-date = 20 September 2006 | archive-date = 8 February 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070208173901/http://www.sneps.net/OO/papers.html | url-status = live }}</ref> 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.<ref name="orange" /> In 2012, it was stated that estimated membership of the Orange Order was around 34,000.<ref>[https://archive.today/20130505031738/http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/headlines/orange-order-has-34-000-members-1-4268026 "Orange Order has 34,000 members."] ''The Newsletter'' 15 September 2012</ref>
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.<ref name="portadowntimesapril07">[http://www.portadowntimes.co.uk/news/local/memorial_to_honour_the_orange_victims_1_1645446 "Memorial to honour the Orange victims"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110724173213/http://www.portadowntimes.co.uk/news/local/memorial_to_honour_the_orange_victims_1_1645446 |date=24 July 2011 }}. ''Portadown Times''. 27 April 2007. Retrieved 1 April 2011.</ref> Some Orangemen also joined loyalist paramilitary groups. During the conflict, the Order had a fractious relationship with loyalist paramilitary groups,<ref>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.</ref> 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.<ref name="orange" />
====Drumcree dispute==== {{Main|Drumcree conflict}} [[File:Drumcree Church 2018-07-26 - 2.jpg|thumb|left|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.<ref name="BBC2002">{{Cite news |date=4 July 2002 |title=Drumcree: Marching into the past |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2092771.stm |url-status=live |access-date=12 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070313204749/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/2092771.stm |archive-date=13 March 2007}}</ref><ref name="BBC1999">{{Cite news |last=Concubhar O'Liathain |date=19 May 1999 |title=How Drumcree became a sectarian flashpoint |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/344104.stm |url-status=live |access-date=12 July 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021226101216/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/344104.stm |archive-date=26 December 2002}}</ref> The residents have sought to re-route the march away from this area, seeing it as "triumphalist" and "supremacist".<ref name="Mulholland">Mulholland, Peter. "Drumcree: A Struggle for Recognition". ''Irish Journal of Sociology, Vol. 9''. 1999</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Two Hundred Years in the Citadel | PDF | Government | Violence |url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/26105917/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926153526/https://www.scribd.com/document/26105917/Two-Hundred-Years-in-the-Citadel |archive-date=26 September 2021 |access-date=10 September 2017}}</ref>
There have been intermittent violent clashes during the march since the 19th century.<ref name="Political Rituals 3">[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/csc/reports/rituals3.htm Bryan, Fraser, Dunn. ''Political Rituals: Loyalist Parades in Portadown – Part 3 – Portadown and its Orange Tradition''.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110608091507/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/csc/reports/rituals3.htm |date=8 June 2011 }} CAIN</ref> 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.<ref name="BBC2002" /> 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.<ref name="BBC2002" />
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.<ref name="BBC2002" /><ref name="BBC1999" /> The situation in Portadown was likened to a "war zone"<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jul/03/northernireland.stuartmillar "Parade fervour turns country lane into war zone"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170330005952/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jul/03/northernireland.stuartmillar |date=30 March 2017 }}. The Guardian. 3 July 1999.</ref> and a "siege".<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/northern_ireland/focus/127075.stm "Siege of Drumcree"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030404015640/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/northern_ireland/focus/127075.stm |date=4 April 2003 }}. ''BBC News''. 5 July 1998.</ref> 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<ref>Daugherty Rasnic, Carol (2003). ''Northern Ireland: can Sean and John live in peace?'' Brandylane Publishers Inc, p. 54. {{ISBN|1-883911-55-9}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url-status=dead |url=http://www.portadowntimes.co.uk/news/local-news/groundhog-day-at-drumcree-parade-1-5272092 |title=Groundhog Day at Drumcree parade |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221181803/http://www.portadowntimes.co.uk/news/local-news/groundhog-day-at-drumcree-parade-1-5272092 |archive-date=21 February 2014 |website=Portadown Times |date=13 July 2013 |access-date=10 February 2014}}</ref> The dispute led to a short-lived boycott of businesses owned by Orangemen and their supporters elsewhere in the region.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Issues: Parades: Drumcree developments |website=CAIN |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/parade/develop.htm#8 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719030735/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/parade/develop.htm#8 |archive-date=19 July 2011 |access-date=26 April 2016}}</ref>
==== The Orange Standard ==== In the 1970s, Northern Ireland was in the grip of The Troubles. The Orange Order felt that the media from around the world painted them in a biased and negative light, favouring the republican side. In 1971, the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland held a committee to combat this and needed a voice to speak on the side of Unionists. In 1972, they outlined a newspaper to avoid Unionists from feeling isolated, promote the principles of the Reformation and the Glorious Revolution and act as a monthly news source for the Orange Order, Protestants and Unionists.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Orange Standard {{!}} Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland |url=https://www.goli.org.uk/orangestandard |access-date=2026-05-13 |website=Orange Order |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-04-11 |title=Canon Ernie Long, '˜legendary' Orange Order chaplain, dies aged 102 |url=https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/canon-ernie-long-legendary-orange-order-chaplain-dies-aged-102-1250311 |access-date=2026-05-13 |website=Belfast News Letter |language=en}}</ref>
In January 1973, ''The Orange Standard'' released its first edition.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Orange Standard Archives {{!}} Museum of Orange Heritage |url=https://www.orangeheritage.co.uk/orangestandardarchives |access-date=2026-05-13 |website=Museum |language=en}}</ref> It also featured information about other lodges around the world, as well as key dates and locations for Orange marches. In 2017, they started releasing the newspaper as an option in digital format.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2 Feb 2017 |title=Orange Order newspaper goes online |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/orange-order-newspaper-goes-online/a/116853153.html |url-status=live |work=Belfast Telegraph}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2017-02-02 |title=Lodge Life: Orange newspaper embraces digital era |url=https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/lodge-life-orange-newspaper-embraces-digital-era-1156856 |access-date=2026-05-13 |website=Belfast News Letter |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-01-31 |title=Lodge Life: Order launches new-look Orange Standard newspaper |url=https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/lodge-life-order-launches-new-look-orange-standard-newspaper-550123 |access-date=2026-05-13 |website=Belfast News Letter |language=en}}</ref>
====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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Demographic Change and Conflict in Northern Ireland: Reconciling Qualitative and Quantitative Evidence |last=Kaufmann |first=Eric |url=http://www.sneps.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/1-Dominant-Ethnicity-demography-and-conflict_revision-Dec2010.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304093305/http://www.sneps.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/1-Dominant-Ethnicity-demography-and-conflict_revision-Dec2010.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=11 November 2015}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kaufmann |first=Eric |last2=Patterson |first2=Henry |date=2009 |title=The Orange Order: A Contemporary Northern Irish History |journal=Journal of British Studies |volume=48 |issue=1 |pages=275–277 |doi=10.1086/597871}}</ref>
== Global expansion ==
=== Africa === {{Main|Orange Order in Africa}}
Orangeism in Africa dates to the mid-19th century, with the earliest lodge established in Freetown, Sierra Leone.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Orange Order in Africa – History Ireland |url=https://historyireland.com/the-orange-order-in-africa/ |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=historyireland.com}}</ref>{{AI-retrieved|date=February 2026|reason=ChatGPT UTM param was present, can't verify the source due to paywall}} Expansion into Nigeria followed in the late 19th century with the founding of Lagos Fine Blues (LOL No. 801) and Africa's first women's lodge.<ref>{{Cite web |last=GOLIpress |date=2021-03-08 |title=Commonwealth Day 2021 |url=https://www.goli.org.uk/post/commonwealth-day-2021 |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=Orange Order |language=en}}</ref>
By the 1920s, Nigerian lodges had transitioned to entirely African leadership under Grand Master E. A. Ojo. While the Nigerian movement declined in the 1960s, it seeded growth in Ghana and Togo, where national Grand Lodges remain active. They are known as the Grand Lodge of Ghana and the Grand Lodge of Togo respectively.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2015-08-30 |title=Orange Order on the equator: Keeping the faith in Ghana |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-34088527 |access-date=2026-02-09 |work=BBC News |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=LOL584 |url=https://lol584.yourwebsitespace.com/orange_order_in_tongo |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=lol584.yourwebsitespace.com}}</ref>
In 1994, the international profile of the African lodges was elevated when Emmanuel Aboki Essien of Togo became the first African to serve as President of the Imperial Orange Council.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Orange Expansion {{!}} Museum of Orange Heritage |url=https://www.orangeheritage.co.uk/orange-expansion |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=Museum |language=en}}</ref> Despite suppression during the 1980s under the Rawlings regime, the Ghanaian Order rebuilt in the 1990s with support from the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland.<ref>{{Cite web |title=What will Rawlings do? {{!}} Special Report {{!}} Africa Confidential |url=https://www.africa-confidential.com/special-report/id/26/what-will-rawlings-do |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=www.africa-confidential.com |language=en}}</ref>
=== Asia === Orangeism in Asia was historically linked to British military regiments and colonial administrative services. In the early 20th century, lodges such as LOL No. 899 (Sialkot, India), LOL No. 802 (Hong Kong), and LOL No. 615 (Singapore) were active among expatriate and military populations.<ref>{{Cite web |last=GOLIpress |date=2021-03-08 |title=Commonwealth Day 2021 |url=https://www.goli.org.uk/post/commonwealth-day-2021 |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=Orange Order |language=en}}</ref> The Sialkot lodge was known as "Rising Sons of India" and was primarily made of soldiers from the 1st Battalion Royal Irish Rifles. This is now a part of Pakistan's territory.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-10-20 |title=A decade after partition, they returned to claim their hidden treasure |url=https://www.indianmemoryproject.com/147/ |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=INDIAN MEMORY PROJECT |language=en-US}}</ref> These lodges served their purpose during the colonial period, but did not survive the mid-20th-century period of decolonization and the Second World War.<ref>{{Cite web |title=LOL584 |url=https://lol584.yourwebsitespace.com/the_orange_order_in_ww1 |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=lol584.yourwebsitespace.com}}</ref>
The British Empire granted the pathway for expansion of the Orange Order. British and Irish military regiments, missionaries and administrators allowed for lodge establishment in countries under the British Empire. This includes Mandatory Palestine and British India.<ref>{{Cite book |last=MacRaild |first=Donald M. |title=Faith, fraternity and fighting: the Orange Order and Irish migrants in Northern England, c. 1850 - 1920 |date=2005 |publisher=Liverpool Univ. Press |isbn=978-0-85323-939-0 |location=Liverpool}}</ref>
=== Oceania === The Grand Orange Lodge of Australia serves as the umbrella organization for the state-level jurisdictions.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ulster-Scots & Irish Unionist Resource - Origins of the Australian Orange Order |url=https://www.ulster-scots.co.uk/docs/orange/originsaustralia.htm |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=www.ulster-scots.co.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland Grand Orange Lodge |url=https://www.grandorange.org.uk/history/Orange_Expansion.html?mobile-app=true&theme=dark |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=www.grandorange.org.uk}}</ref> The first lodge was founded in Melbourne in 1843, following sectarian tensions during local elections. In Sydney, the first lodge was formally established in 1845 by members of British military regiments (notably the 17th, 50th, and 63rd Regiments).<ref>{{Cite web |last=School of Historical Studies |first=Department of History |title=Orange Lodge (Loyal Orange Institution) - Entry - eMelbourne - The Encyclopedia of Melbourne Online |url=https://www.emelbourne.net.au/biogs/EM01093b.htm#:~:text=Victoria's%20first%20Orange%20Lodge%20was,opposition%20in%20the%20new%20colony. |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=www.emelbourne.net.au |language=en-gb}}</ref>
The Order grew rapidly in the mid-to-late 19th century. After the 1868 attempted assassination of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, by Fenian Henry James O’Farrell in Sydney, membership surged as "loyalist" sentiment spiked.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Assassination attempt on Prince Alfred 1868 {{!}} The Dictionary of Sydney |url=https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/assassination_attempt_on_prince_alfred_1868#:~:text=Although%20O'Farrell%20fired%20his,local%20newspapers%20fanned%20public%20indignation. |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=dictionaryofsydney.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Indignation In The Colony - The Failed Royal Assassination |url=https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/visit/events/Pages/IndignationInTheColony.aspx |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=www.parliament.nsw.gov.au}}</ref>
In New Zealand, the Orange Order was influential during the premiership of William Massey. The Order was first established in Auckland in 1842 at the Osprey Inn.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2022-07-11 |title=25 facts you may not know about the Orange Order |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/25-facts-you-may-not-know-about-the-orange-order/41829112.html |access-date=2026-02-09 |work=BelfastTelegraph.co.uk |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=What is Orange Order? |url=https://www.orangeorder.org.nz/what-is-orange-order |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=Orange Order |language=en}}</ref> The Grand Orange Lodge of New Zealand oversees all lodges on the north and south islands of New Zealand.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Home |url=https://www.orangeorder.org.nz/ |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=Orange Order |language=en}}</ref>
New Zealand was early to adopt formal structures for women, with the first women's Orange lodge opening in Wellington in September 1888.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of our Lodges |url=https://www.orangeorder.org.nz/history-of-our-lodges |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=Orange Order |language=en}}</ref>
=== North America === {{Main|Orange Order in Canada}}
The Orange Order historically had a significant influence in Canadian politics from the mid-19th century through the mid-20th century. Under the leadership of Ogle Robert Gowan, it became a pillar of the Conservative Party and a fierce defender of British identity in Canada, particularly in Ontario and Newfoundland.<ref>{{Cite web |last=midatlanticmusings |date=2013-10-16 |title=The Orangeman in Winter: Ogle Gowan, Masculine Frailties, and the Rise of the Orange Order |url=https://midatlanticmusings.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/the-orangeman-in-winter-ogle-gowan-masculine-frailties-and-the-rise-of-the-orange-order/ |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=Mid-Atlantic Musings |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Orange Order in Canada – History Ireland |url=https://historyireland.com/the-orange-order-in-canada/ |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=historyireland.com}}</ref>
In the United States, the Orange Order was primarily an immigrant fraternal society. It is most noted in American history for the 1870 Orange Riots in New York City, which highlighted sectarian tensions among the Irish diaspora.<ref>{{Cite book |last=White |first=Richard |title=The Republic for which it stands: the United States during Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, 1865-1896 |date=2017 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-973581-5 |series=The Oxford history of the United States |location=New York, NY}}</ref> Violent clashes broke out when Irish Catholic groups attempted to block Orangemen from parading to celebrate the Battle of the Boyne. The 1871 riot was particularly bloody, with the result of over 60 deaths and requiring the intervention of the New York National Guard.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1905-07-09 |title=WHAT REALLY STARTED THE FATAL ORANGE RIOTS OF 1871 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1905/07/09/archives/what-really-started-the-fatal-orange-riots-of-1871.html |access-date=2026-02-09 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
The first orange parade in America was held in Boston in 1824.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ulster-Scots & Irish Unionist Resource - The Orange Order in the USA |url=https://www.ulster-scots.co.uk/docs/orange/originsusa.htm |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=www.ulster-scots.co.uk}}</ref> The Grand Orange Lodge of America is known as the Loyal Orange Institution of the United States of America.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About {{!}} Loyal Orange USA |url=https://orangeorderusa.org/about/ |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=orangeorderusa.org}}</ref>
==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.<ref name=":03">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2020-04-28 |title=Lodge Life |url=https://iloi.org/rights/#:~:text=The%20Order%20still%20has%20many,of%20loyalty%20and%20democracy%20prevail. |access-date=2024-09-18 |website=Independent Loyal Orange Institution |language=en-GB}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Orange Order flag color codes |url=https://www.flagcolorcodes.com/orange-order#:~:text=The%20Orange%20Order%20flag%20has,,%20white,%20orange%20and%20purple. |access-date=2024-09-18 |website=www.flagcolorcodes.com |language=en}}</ref> Orange represents the monarchs in the House of Orange.
==Beliefs and activities== thumb|Orange Order poster depicting historical and religious symbols
===Protestantism=== The basis of the modern Orange Order is the promotion and propagation of "biblical Protestantism" and the principles of the Reformation.<ref>{{Cite web |title=About {{!}} Loyal Orange USA |url=https://orangeorderusa.org/about/ |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=orangeorderusa.org}}</ref> As such the Order only accepts those who confess a belief in a Protestant religion. As well as Catholics, non-creedal and non-Trinitarian Christians are also banned. This includes members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Jehovah's Witnesses, Unitarians, Eastern Orthodoxy and Quakers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lurgan Ancestry ~ The Orange Order |url=https://www.lurganancestry.com/orangeorder.htm |access-date=2026-02-09 |website=www.lurganancestry.com}}</ref>
Previous rules specifically forbade Roman Catholics and their close relatives from joining<ref name="auto" /><ref name="ExplainingNI" /><ref name="TOM" /> but the current rules use the wording "non-reformed faith" instead. Converts to Protestantism can join by appealing to the 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,<ref name="original" /> 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.<ref name="Cawley1993">{{Cite book |last=Cawley |first=Peter |title=Alexandria, Volume 2 |date=1993 |publisher=Red Wheel/Weiser |isbn=9780933999978 |editor-last=Fideler |editor-first=David |page=269 |chapter=The Castle of Heroes: W B Yeats Celtic Mystical Order |access-date=21 January 2018 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sboJPPCBpuQC&pg=PA269}}</ref> Some anti-Masonic evangelical Christian groups have claimed that the Orange Order is still influenced by freemasonry.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Inside the Hidden World of Secret Societies |url=http://www.evangelicaltruth.com/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061008231616/http://www.evangelicaltruth.com/ |archive-date=8 October 2006 |access-date=23 October 2006 |publisher=Evangelical Truth}} (An example)</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Orange Order |url=http://www.evangelicaltruth.com/orange.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091228040059/http://www.evangelicaltruth.com/orange.html |archive-date=28 December 2009 |access-date=1 January 2010 |publisher=Inside the Hidden World of Secret Societies}} ("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.")</ref>
====Sabbatarianism==== thumb|upright=1.25|Queen's LOL 1845 annual service at Union Theological College.<ref name=":11">{{Cite news |date=October 2021 |title=The Queen's LOL 1845 annual service was held at Union Theological College, Belfast, parading from and returning to Sandy Row Orange Hall |pages=9 |work=The Orange Standard Newspaper |url=https://www.goli.org.uk/_files/ugd/d4167b_4f1c9458ca204e8489cf8a6623c7e091.pdf}}</ref> 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.<ref name="c02">{{Cite web |title=A Draft Chronology of the Conflict – 2002 |url=http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch02.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110806141019/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch02.htm |archive-date=6 August 2011 |access-date=9 February 2008 |publisher=CAIN}}</ref> The County Antrim Agricultural Association complied with the Order's wishes.<ref name="c02" />
===Politics=== The Orange Order is strongly linked to British unionism.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Tonge|first1= Johnathan|title=Northern Ireland|publisher=Polity|year=2006|pages=24, 171, 172, 173}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|author-link1=David George Boyce|first1=David George|last1=Boyce|first2=Robert|last2=Eccleshall|first3=Vincent|last3=Geoghegan|title=Political Thought in Ireland Since The Seventeenth Century|publisher=Routledge|year= 1993|page=203}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Mitchel|first1= Patrick|title=Evangelicalism and national identity in Ulster, 1921–1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2003| page=136}}</ref> This is a political ideology that supports the continued unity of the United Kingdom. Unionism is thus opposed to, for example, Irish reunification, Scottish independence and Welsh independence.
[[File:Ballinrees Orange Hall.jpg|thumb|right|An Orange Hall in Ballinrees bedecked with Union Flags]] thumb|right|An anti "Sectarian March" sign in Rasharkin
The Order, from its very inception, was an overtly political organisation.<ref>{{multiref|1={{Cite book|title=For the Cause of Liberty|first1=Terry |last1=Golway|publisher= Touchstone|year= 2000|ISBN=0-684-85556-9|page=179}}|2={{Cite book|title=Ireland: A History|author-link1=Robert Kee|first1=Robert|last1=Kee|publisher=Abacus|year=2003|others=First published 1982 Revised edition published 2003, 2004 and 2005|ISBN=0-349-11676-8|page=61}}|3={{Cite book|title=Ireland History of a Nation|first1=David |last1=Ross|publisher=Geddes & Grosset|location=Scotland|year=2002|others=Reprinted 2005 & 2006|ISBN=1-84205-164-4|page=195}}}}</ref> 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 Ministers Terence O'Neill (1969), James Chichester-Clark (1969–71), and Brian Faulkner (1972–74).<ref name="orange" /> At the outbreak of The Troubles in 1969, the Order encouraged its members to join the Northern Ireland security forces.<ref name="portadowntimesapril07" />
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.<ref name="orange" /><ref>{{multiref|1={{Cite web |last=Kaufmann |first=Eric |date=November 2005 |title=The New Unionism |url=http://www.sneps.net/OO/images/Opinions%20'The%20new%20unionism'%20by%20Eric%20Kaufmann%20%20Prospect%20Magazine%20November%202005%20issue%20116.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927092650/http://www.sneps.net/OO/images/Opinions%20'The%20new%20unionism'%20by%20Eric%20Kaufmann%20%20Prospect%20Magazine%20November%202005%20issue%20116.htm |archive-date=27 September 2007 |access-date=10 December 2006 |publisher=Prospect}}|2={{cite book | author-last1 = Kaufmann | author-first1 = Eric | author-first2 = Henry |author-last2=Patterson | title = The Decline of the Loyal Family: Unionism and Orangeism in Northern Ireland | publisher = Manchester University Press | year = 2007 | url = http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/catalogue/book.asp?id=1072 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080606183419/http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/catalogue/book.asp?id=1072 | archive-date = 6 June 2008 | df = dmy-all }}}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Tonge |first1=Jonathan |first2=Jocelyn |last2=Evans |date=September 2004 |title=Eating the Oranges? The Democratic Unionist Party and the Orange Order Vote in Northern Ireland |url=http://epop2004.politics.ox.ac.uk/materials/Tonge_Evans.pdf#search=%22jonathan%20tonge%20orangeism%22 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061110154349/http://epop2004.politics.ox.ac.uk/materials/Tonge_Evans.pdf#search=%22jonathan%20tonge%20orangeism%22 |archive-date=10 November 2006 |publisher=EPOP 2004 Conference, University of Oxford |df=dmy-all}}</ref>
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:<ref>{{Cite news |date=12 March 2005 |title=Orange Order votes to sever ties with UUP |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/orange-order-votes-to-sever-ties-with-uup-1.1174784 |access-date=2024-02-29 |newspaper=The Irish Times |language=en}}</ref> <blockquote>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.</blockquote>There were already a number of high-profile Orangemen who were DUP MPs and strategists.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kennaway |first=Brian |url=http://www.methuen.co.uk/titles.php/itemcode/1141 |title=The Orange Order: A Tradition Betrayed |publisher=Methuen |year=2006 |isbn=0-413-77535-6 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061003062203/http://www.methuen.co.uk/titles.php/itemcode/1141/ |archive-date=3 October 2006 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>
In December 2009, the Orange Order held secret talks with the two unionist parties.<ref name="BBC2010-01-28">{{Cite news |last=BBC |date=28 January 2010 |title=Orange Order convened 'unionist unity' talks |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/8486354.stm |url-status=live |access-date=22 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926153523/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/8486354.stm |archive-date=26 September 2021}}</ref> 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.<ref name="BBC2010-01-28" /> Sinn Féin's Alex Maskey said that the talks exposed the Order as a "very political organisation".<ref name="BBC2010-01-28" /> Shortly after the election, Grand Master Robert Saulters called for a "single unionist party" to maintain the union.<ref name="BBC2010-05-21">{{Cite news |last=BBC |date=21 May 2010 |title=Orangeman Robert Saulters in call for unionist unity |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/10140839.stm |url-status=live |access-date=22 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926153607/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10140839 |archive-date=26 September 2021}}</ref> 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".<ref name="BBC2010-05-21" />
In the October 2010 issue of ''The Orange Standard'', Grand Master Robert Saulters referred to 'dissident' Irish republican paramilitaries as the "Roman Catholic IRA".<ref>{{Cite news |first1=David |last1=Gordon |date=5 October 2010 |title=Orange Order chief brands dissident terrorists as 'Roman Catholic IRA' |work=The Belfast Telegraph |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/orange-order-chief-brands-dissident-terrorists-as-lsquoroman-catholic-irarsquo-14967350.html |url-status=live |access-date=8 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101007123506/http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/orange-order-chief-brands-dissident-terrorists-as-lsquoroman-catholic-irarsquo-14967350.html |archive-date=7 October 2010}}</ref> SDLP MLA John Dallat asked Justice Minister David 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".<ref>{{Cite news |first1=Victoria |last1=O'Hara |date=7 October 2010 |title=Did Orange Order chief's comments breach hate laws? |work=The Belfast Telegraph |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/did-orange-order-chiefrsquos-comments-breach-hate-laws-14969381.html |url-status=live |access-date=8 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101011025216/http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/did-orange-order-chiefrsquos-comments-breach-hate-laws-14969381.html |archive-date=11 October 2010}}</ref> In a 2011 survey of 1,500 Orangemen throughout Northern Ireland, over 60% believed that "most Catholics are IRA sympathisers".<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-15832376|title=60% of Order view Catholics as 'IRA sympathisers'|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181015011332/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-15832376 |archive-date=15 October 2018 |work=BBC News|date= 22 November 2011|access-date=25 November 2011|url-status=live}}</ref>
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".<ref>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"</ref> [[File:Orangemen parade in Bangor, 12 July 2010 - geograph - 1964645.jpg|thumb|Orangemen parading in Bangor on 12 July 2010]]
===Parades=== {{Main|Orange walk|The Twelfth}}
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.<ref>''Drumcree: The Orange Order's Last stand'', Chris Ryder and Vincent Kearney, Methuen, {{ISBN|0-413-76260-2}}.; ''Through the Minefield'', David McKittrick, Blackstaff Press, 1999, Belfast, {{ISBN|0-85640-652-X}}.</ref> In recent years, most Orange parades have passed peacefully.<ref>{{Cite web |title=British Irish Rights Watch |url=http://www.birw.org/Parades%202005.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070702085648/http://www.birw.org/Parades%202005.html |archive-date=2 July 2007 |access-date=2007-10-02 |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=12 July 2007 |title=Orange Parades pass off peacefully in the North |work=Belfast Telegraph |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/ireland/article2763784.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605114859/http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/breaking-news/ukandireland/orange-parades-pass-off-peacefully-in-the-north-13458316.html |archive-date=5 June 2011}}</ref> 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 venues 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.<ref>Material Conflicts-Parades and Visual Displays in Northern Ireland, Neil Jarman page 127</ref> 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.<ref>Material Conflicts-Parades and Visual Displays in Northern Ireland, Neil Jarman page 128</ref>
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.<ref name="orange" />
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.<ref>[http://www.u.tv/News/Order-poll-on-Catholic-IRA-sympathy/2859b2cd-fe7a-489e-bb1a-e73bc7c7c87a "Order poll on Catholic 'IRA sympathy'"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111123173927/http://www.u.tv/News/Order-poll-on-Catholic-IRA-sympathy/2859b2cd-fe7a-489e-bb1a-e73bc7c7c87a |date=23 November 2011 }}. UTV News. 22 November 2011. Retrieved 25 November 2011.</ref>
===Orange halls=== [[File:Rasharkin Orange Hall - after attack - geograph.org.uk - 1455778.jpg|thumb|Rasharkin Orange hall daubed with republican graffiti]] [[File:Clifton street.jpg|thumb|Clifton Street Orange Hall in Belfast designed by William Batt and completed in 1889,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brett |first=C.E.B. |title=Buildings of Belfast 1700–1914 |date=1985 |publisher=Friar's Bush Press |isbn=0-946872-02-3 |edition=revised |location=Belfast |page=55}}</ref> which has a protective cage. The equestrian statue on the roof by Harry Hems<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brett |first=C.E.B. |title=Buildings of Belfast 1700–1914 |date=1985 |publisher=Friar's Bush Press |isbn=0-946872-02-3 |edition=revised |location=Belfast |page=56}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite web |date=11 September 2007 |title=SDLP MLA Mary Bradley |url=https://www.theyworkforyou.com/ni/?gid=2007-09-11.2.60 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605092221/http://www.theyworkforyou.com/ni/?gid=2007-09-11.2.60 |archive-date=5 June 2011 |access-date=15 June 2010 |publisher=Theyworkforyou.com}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Citation |title=‘TRADITION’, CONTROL AND RESISTANCE |date=2015-11-30 |work=Orange Parades |pages=155–172 |url=https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt18fs351.15 |access-date=2026-01-09 |publisher=Pluto Books |isbn=978-1-84964-046-6}}</ref>
Of the approximately 700 Orange halls in Ireland, 282 have been targeted by arsonists since the beginning of the Troubles in 1968.<ref>{{cite news |title=Fresh threats to Orangemen, DPP members |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/article3169950.ece |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120723044603/http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/article3169950.ece |archive-date=23 July 2012 |access-date=31 October 2008 |work=Belfast Telegraph}}</ref> 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.<ref>Irish News, 18 December 2007, pg16 (letter from Paul Butler)</ref> On one occasion a member of Sinn Féin's youth wing was hospitalised after falling off the roof of an Orange hall.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Newsletter |url=http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/Shinner-falls-off-Orange-hall.3163541.jp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013025838/http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/Shinner-falls-off-Orange-hall.3163541.jp |archive-date=13 October 2007 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> In a number of cases halls have been badly damaged or completely destroyed by arson,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Thornton |first=Chris |date=14 May 2007 |title=Republic's Protestants 'victims of sectarianism' |work=Belfast Telegraph |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/article2539736.ece |access-date=2 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070916032830/http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/article2539736.ece |archive-date=16 September 2007}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2007-07-18 |title=Orange hall attacks investigated |language=en-GB |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/6904579.stm |url-status=live |access-date=2019-08-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190829133847/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/6904579.stm |archive-date=29 August 2019}}</ref> while others have been damaged by paint bombings, graffiti and other vandalism.<ref name="BelfastNewsletter">Belfast Newsletter 18 December 2007, p.1</ref> 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.<ref name=BelfastNewsletter/>
===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''<ref>{{Cite news |title=The Orange Standard |publisher=Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland |location=Belfast |url=http://www.grandorangelodge.co.uk/orange-standard#.WaSjE-SWyHs |url-status=live |access-date=28 August 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170829035909/http://www.grandorangelodge.co.uk/orange-standard#.WaSjE-SWyHs |archive-date=29 August 2017 |oclc=65776547}}</ref> (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,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Cross of Saint Patrick Loyal Orange Lodge No688 |url=http://www.orangenet.org/lol688 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100821062923/http://www.orangenet.org/lol688/ |archive-date=21 August 2010 |access-date=15 June 2010 |publisher=Orangenet.org |df=dmy-all}}</ref> 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.<ref>Andrew Boyd, 'The Orange Order, 1795–1995', ''History Today'', September 1995, pp.22–3.</ref>
William was supported by the Pope in his campaigns against James' backer Louis XIV of France,<ref>Tim Pat Coogan, ''1916: The Easter Rising'', Phoenix, 2001, {{ISBN|0-7538-1852-3}}, p. 14</ref> and this fact is sometimes left out of Orange histories.<ref>For example, M.W. Dewar, John Brown and S.E. Long, ''Orangeism: A New Historical Appreciation'', Belfast, 1967, pp.43–6.</ref>
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.<ref>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'.</ref>
===War commemoration=== [[File:Memoriallodge.jpg|thumb|Thiepval Memorial Lodge parade in remembrance of the Battle of the Somme]] 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.<ref>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</ref>
===Relationship with loyalist paramilitaries=== thumb|right|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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=AN PHOBLACHT/REPUBLICAN NEWS |url=http://republican-news.org/archive/2000/June29/29spri.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160509022109/http://republican-news.org/archive/2000/June29/29spri.html |archive-date=9 May 2016 |access-date=26 April 2016}}</ref> For example, prominent loyalist John Gregg was a member of ''Cloughfern Young Conquerors'' band,<ref>Ian S. Wood, ''Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA'', Edinburgh University Press, 2006, p. 200</ref> while Coleraine-based ''Freeman Memorial'' band was named after a UVF member who was killed by his own bomb.<ref>[http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/martin-mcguinness-accuses-unionists-of-bowing-to-extreme-loyalist-agenda-29893811.html "Martin McGuinness accuses unionists of bowing to 'extreme loyalist agenda'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140113015427/http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/martin-mcguinness-accuses-unionists-of-bowing-to-extreme-loyalist-agenda-29893811.html |date=13 January 2014 }} ''Belfast Telegraph''</ref> 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.<ref>''Orange Parades-The Politics of Ritual, Tradition and Control'' Dominic Byrne Pluto Press page 127</ref>
A number of prominent loyalist militants were members of the Orange Order at the same time. This includes Gusty Spence,<ref>Ed Moloney, ''Paisley: From Demagogue to Democrat?'', Dublin: Poolbeg, 2008, pp. 130–131</ref> Robert Bates,<ref>Taylor, Peter (1999). ''Loyalists''. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. pp. 150–152</ref> Davy Payne,<ref>Brian Kennaway ''The Orange Order-A Tradition Betrayed'' page 47</ref> David Ervine,<ref>^ Moloney, Ed (2010). Voices From the Grave: Two Men's War in Ireland. Faber & Faber. p.315</ref> John Bingham,<ref>Taylor, p.151</ref> George Seawright,<ref>[http://republican-news.org/current/news/2008/08/glory_days_of_the_orange_order.html "Glory Days of the Orange Order"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140428033507/http://republican-news.org/current/news/2008/08/glory_days_of_the_orange_order.html |date=28 April 2014 }} ''Republican News''</ref> Richard Jameson,<ref name="County Armagh Grand Orange Lodge">[http://www.armaghorange.co.uk/memory.htm County Armagh Grand Orange Lodge] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090709194454/http://www.armaghorange.co.uk/memory.htm |date=9 July 2009 }}. Retrieved 8 September 2011</ref> Billy McCaughey,<ref name="Between a Rock and Hard Gospel" /> Robert McConnell<ref name="County Armagh Grand Orange Lodge" /> and Ernie Elliott.<ref>Wood, ''Crimes of Loyalty'', p. 19</ref> The banner of ''Old Boyne Island Heroes'' Orange lodge bears the names of John Bingham and Shankill Butcher Robert Bates, who were both members.<ref>Taylor, pp 150–152</ref> Another Shankill Butcher, UDR soldier Eddie McIlwaine, was pictured taking part in an Orange march in 2003 with a bannerette of killed UVF member Brian Robinson (who himself was an Orangeman).<ref name="Between a Rock and Hard Gospel">{{Cite web |last=Niall Meehan |title=Between a Rock and Hard Gospel - the Orange Order and the Church of Ireland |url=https://gcd.academia.edu/NiallMeehan/Papers/150767/Between_a_Rock_and_Hard_Gospel_-_the_Orange_Order_and_the_Church_of_Ireland |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120824095140/http://gcd.academia.edu/NiallMeehan/Papers/150767/Between_a_Rock_and_Hard_Gospel_-_the_Orange_Order_and_the_Church_of_Ireland |archive-date=24 August 2012 |access-date=26 April 2016 |website=Acedemia}}</ref><ref>Taylor, p. 152</ref> McIlwaine was also pictured acting as a steward at a 2014 Orange march. An Orange Order spokesman refused to condemn McIlwaine's membership of the Order.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Shankill Butcher steward as Orange march passed a Catholic church |work=Belfast Telegraph |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/news/shankill-butcher-steward-as-orange-march-passed-a-catholic-church-30446796.html |url-status=live |access-date=30 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200330004949/https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sunday-life/news/shankill-butcher-steward-as-orange-march-passed-a-catholic-church-30446796.html |archive-date=30 March 2020}}</ref>
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,<ref name="Political Rituals 3" /><ref>''Belfast Telegraph'', 12 July 1972, p. 4.</ref><ref>Bryan, Dominic. ''Orange parades: the politics of ritual, tradition, and control''. Pluto Press, 2000. p.92.</ref> saluting the Orangemen as they passed.<ref name="autogenerated1">Mulholland, Peter. [https://www.scribd.com/doc/26105917/Two-Hundred-Years-in-the-Citadel ''Two-Hundred Years in the Citadel''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102231507/http://www.scribd.com/doc/26105917/Two-Hundred-Years-in-the-Citadel |date=2 November 2012 }}. 2010.</ref> 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".<ref>Bruce, Steve. ''The Red Hand: Protestant paramilitaries in Northern Ireland''. Oxford University Press, 1992. p.11</ref> Portadown Orangemen allowed known militants such as George Seawright to take part in a 6 July 1986 march, contrary to a prior agreement.<ref name="calgary">''The Calgary Herald'', 7 July 1986</ref> Seawright was a unionist politician and UVF member who had publicly proposed burning Catholics in ovens.<ref name="calgary" /> 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.<ref name="calgary" />
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.<ref name="cainjul92">[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch92.htm#Jul "Chronology of the Conflict: July 1992] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110305015936/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/chron/ch92.htm#Jul |date=5 March 2011 }}, Conflict Archive on the Internet (CAIN)</ref> 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".<ref name=cainjul92/> The incident led to a more concerted effort by residents to have the marches banned from the area.<ref name="McDon225">McDonald & Cusack, p. 225</ref> In 2007, a banner commemorating UDA member Joe Bratty appeared at an Orange march. Bratty was said to have orchestrated the massacre.<ref>[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/victims/docs/newspapers/belfast_telegraph/breen_bt_160707.pdf "Why did the Order fly flag for my brother's killer?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140428034051/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/victims/docs/newspapers/belfast_telegraph/breen_bt_160707.pdf |date=28 April 2014 }}''Belfast Telegraph'' University of Ulster archives. 16 July 2007. Retrieved 9 November 2012</ref>
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.<ref>Bruce, Steve. ''The Red Hand: Protestant paramilitaries in Northern Ireland''. Oxford University Press, 1992. p.157</ref><ref name="booker87">Booker, Ronnie Michael. [http://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1823&context=utk_graddiss ''Orange Alba: The Civil Religion of Loyalism in the Southwestern Lowlands of Scotland since 1798''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140820220608/http://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1823&context=utk_graddiss |date=20 August 2014 }}. University of Tennessee, 2010. p.87</ref> During the 1970s an Orangeman—Roddy MacDonald—was the UDA's 'commander' in Scotland.<ref name="wood330">Wood, Ian S. ''Crimes of Loyalty: A History of the UDA''. Edinburgh University Press, 2006. pp. 330–331</ref> 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.<ref name=wood330/><ref>Bruce, p.158</ref><ref>Booker, pp. 96–97</ref> His successor as Scottish UDA commander, James Hamilton, was also an Orangeman.<ref name=wood330/> Many Scottish Orangemen were also convicted for loyalist paramilitary activity, and some Orange meetings were used to raise funds for loyalist prisoners' welfare groups.<ref name="Booker, p.226">Booker, p.226</ref><ref>Wood, p.333</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Henry McDonald |date=8 July 2006 |title=MP calls for ban on jailed Liverpool Orangemen |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/jul/09/uk.northernireland |url-status=live |access-date=26 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604214720/http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2006/jul/09/uk.northernireland |archive-date=4 June 2016}}</ref>
[[File:Stoneyford Orange Hall - geograph.org.uk - 1506463.jpg|thumb|Stoneyford Orange Hall in County Antrim]]
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,<ref name="Susan McKay">McKay, Susan. ''[http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/people/accounts/mckay00.htm Northern Protestants: An Unsettled People - Portadown] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101207075749/http://cain.ulst.ac.uk/othelem/people/accounts/mckay00.htm |date=7 December 2010 }}''. Blackstaff Press (2000).</ref> 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.<ref>[http://www.patfinucanecentre.org/archive/sattacks/july01atta.html Sectarian attacks: July 2001 (a)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303232754/http://www.patfinucanecentre.org/archive/sattacks/july01atta.html |date=3 March 2016 }}, Pat Finucane Centre</ref> Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) leader Billy Wright was frequently seen at Drumcree in the company of Harold Gracey, head of Portadown Orange Lodge.<ref name="Susan McKay" /> Gracey later attended a rally in support of Wright<ref>Sydney Elliott & William D Flackes. ''Conflict in Northern Ireland: An Encyclopedia''. Abc-Clio Incorporated, 1999. p.92.</ref> and refused to condemn the loyalist violence linked to the standoff.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/823511.stm "Orange leader 'won't condemn violence'"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060531045323/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/823511.stm |date=31 May 2006 }}. BBC News. 7 July 2000.</ref>
In the late 1990s, Stoneyford Orange Hall was reported to be a focal point for the Orange Volunteers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Issue of collusion raises ugly head again |url=http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/irish_news/arts2005/jun16_collusion_raises_its_ugly_head__JGibney.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090104161506/http://www.nuzhound.com/articles/irish_news/arts2005/jun16_collusion_raises_its_ugly_head__JGibney.php |archive-date=4 January 2009 |access-date=31 October 2008 |work=Nuzhound.com}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite news |date=5 November 1999 |title=Call to end cross-border police links |work=BBC News |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/505673.stm |url-status=live |access-date=31 October 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926153525/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/505673.stm |archive-date=26 September 2021}}</ref> Their Orange lodge refused to expel them.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Henry McDonald |date=24 December 2000 |title=Orange lodge refuses to expel terrorist twins |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/dec/24/northernireland.henrymcdonald |url-status=live |access-date=26 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604213720/http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/dec/24/northernireland.henrymcdonald |archive-date=4 June 2016}}</ref>
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.<ref>[http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/regional/former-dup-candidate-jailed-for-sectarian-pipe-bomb-attack-1-5013277 "Former DUP candidate jailed for sectarian pipe-bomb attack"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510200316/http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/regional/former-dup-candidate-jailed-for-sectarian-pipe-bomb-attack-1-5013277 |date=10 May 2013 }} ''The Newsletter''</ref>
The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland has issued several statements condemning violence and paramilitarism.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland | Fraternal Organisation | Belfast |url=https://www.goli.org.uk/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110120213502/http://grandorangelodge.co.uk/press/PressReleases-2000/000705-violence-condemned.htm |archive-date=20 January 2011 |website=GOLI}}</ref> Answering accusations of paramilitary links by Sinn Féin in 2011, an Orange spokesman said: "The Orange Order has consistently condemned all terrorist violence".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Orange Order dismisses SF's 'loyalist link' claim |url=http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/local/orange_order_dismisses_sf_s_loyalist_link_claim_1_2929088 |access-date=26 April 2016}}{{Dead link|date=July 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In 2008, Armagh Orangemen condemned the flying of paramilitary flags.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Orange Order protests over paramilitary flags |url=http://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/local/orange-order-protests-over-paramilitary-flags-1-1872474 |access-date=26 April 2016}}{{Dead link|date=July 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Denis Watson, the then secretary of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, has publicly called for anyone convicted of terrorist offences to be thrown out.<ref>{{Cite news |last=McDonald |first=Henry |date=24 December 2000 |title=UK news, Northern Ireland (News), donotuse Observer |work=The Guardian |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/dec/24/northernireland.henrymcdonald |url-status=live |access-date=15 December 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160818070903/https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/dec/24/northernireland.henrymcdonald |archive-date=18 August 2016}}</ref> 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".<ref>[http://www.grandorangelodge.co.uk/press/Orange-Standard/2000-Standard/0008-August2000/article2.html Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland Grand Orange Lodge<!-- Bot generated title -->] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101211230507/http://grandorangelodge.co.uk/press/Orange-Standard/2000-Standard/0008-August2000/article2.html |date=11 December 2010 }}</ref> 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".<ref>{{Cite web |title='The New Unionism', Prospect, November 2005 « Eric Kaufmann |url=http://www.sneps.net/research-interests/orangeism/articles-and-policy-papers/the-new-unionism-prospect-november-2005 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160427014224/http://www.sneps.net/research-interests/orangeism/articles-and-policy-papers/the-new-unionism-prospect-november-2005 |archive-date=27 April 2016 |access-date=26 April 2016}}</ref>
==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.<ref>Eric Kaufmann, ''The Orange Order: A Contemporary Northern Irish History'', Oxford, 2007, p. 288.</ref> This is based on Reformed Christian theology, which teaches that the Roman Catholic Mass is idolatry,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Mass is Idolatry (1550) by John Knox |url=http://www.swrb.com/newslett/actualNLs/vindicat.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304032644/http://www.swrb.com/newslett/actualNLs/vindicat.htm |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=26 April 2016}}</ref> a view promulgated by Protestant Reformers such as Martin Luther.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20121203075305/http://www.ulsterbulwark.org/ROMANISM(2623567).htm Evangelical Protestant Society, "Martin Luther on Popery"]}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20131210105455/http://ulsterbulwark.org/ULSTER-BULWARK-AprJune-2011(2625528).htm Evangelical Protestant Society, April 2011, "Why Protestants must never attend the Papal Mass"]}}</ref><ref>[http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/bcof.htm#part30 Baptist Confession of Faith 1689] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100407070838/http://www.spurgeon.org/~phil/creeds/bcof.htm |date=7 April 2010 }}</ref>
==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.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cairns |first=David |last2=Smyth |first2=Jim |date=2002 |title=Up off our Bellies and onto our Knees: Symbolic Effacement and the Orange Order in Northern Ireland |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/13504630220132062 |journal=Social Identities |volume=8 |issue=1 |pages=143–160 |doi=10.1080/13504630220132062 |issn=1350-4630|url-access=subscription }}</ref> 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,<ref>Peter Taylor, ''Loyalists'', London, 1999, pp.151–2.</ref> 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.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bryan |first=Dominic |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctt18fs351 |title=Orange Parades: The Politics of Ritual, Tradition and Control |date=2015-11-30 |publisher=Pluto Books |isbn=978-1-84964-046-6 |doi=10.2307/j.ctt18fs351}}</ref>
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).<ref>{{Cite news |last=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=So What Really Happens Behind Lodge Doors |work=Belfast Telegraph |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/so-what-really-happens-behind-lodge-doors-13443749.html |url-status=live |access-date=13 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120812234500/http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/so-what-really-happens-behind-lodge-doors-13443749.html |archive-date=12 August 2012}}</ref>
==Related organisations== [[File:Orange marcher.jpg|thumb|right|upright|An Orangewoman marching in an Orange Order parade in Glasgow.]]
===Association of Loyal Orangewomen of Ireland=== A distinct<ref name="MJess">{{Cite web |last=Jess |first=Mervyn |date=22 May 2007 |title=So, what really happens behind lodge doors ... |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/features/daily-features/article2568169.ece |access-date=24 February 2008 |website=The Orange Order |publisher=Belfast Telegraph}} {{Dead link|date=September 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> women's organisation grew up out of the Orange Order. Called the Association of Loyal Orangewomen of Ireland,<ref name="RDE">Ruth Dudley Edwards, ''The Faithful Tribe: An Intimate Portrait of the Loyal Institutions'', London, 2000, p.190</ref> 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.<ref name="Bryan">{{Cite book |last=Bryan |first=Dominic |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OECZgQoAV6kC |title=Orange Parades: The Politics of Ritual, Tradition and Control |publisher=Pluto Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-7453-1413-9 |page=114 |access-date=24 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210926153620/https://books.google.com/books?id=OECZgQoAV6kC |archive-date=26 September 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> 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!".
===Independent Orange Institution=== {{Main|Independent Loyal Orange Institution}}
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.<ref name="Orange dispute">{{Cite book |last=Moloney |first=Ed |title=Paisley |publisher=Poolbeg |edition=1 |pages=Chapter 9}}</ref> The Independent Order originally had radical tendencies, especially in the area of labour relations, but this soon faded. In the 1950s and 1960s 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.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018-04-04 |title=Spirit of independence with Loyal Orange Institution |url=https://www.newsletter.co.uk/news/spirit-of-independence-with-loyal-orange-institution-308296 |access-date=2026-01-09 |website=Belfast News Letter |language=en}}</ref>
===Royal Black Institution=== {{Main|Royal Black Institution}}
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.
===Apprentice Boys of Derry=== {{Main|Apprentice Boys of Derry}}
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.<ref name="Diamond_Dan">{{Cite news |last=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=19 July 2008 |title=Orange Order superhero Dan in copyright row |work=Belfast Telegraph |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/orange-order-superhero-dan-in-copyright-row-28442079.html |url-status=live |access-date=3 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604124611/http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/orange-order-superhero-dan-in-copyright-row-28442079.html |archive-date=4 June 2016}}</ref>
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".<ref>{{Cite news |last=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=4 April 2008 |title=Orange Order's mascot Dan is a real diamond |work=Belfast Telegraph |url=http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/orange-orders-mascot-dan-is-a-real-diamond-28386163.html |url-status=live |access-date=13 July 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160817182231/http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/orange-orders-mascot-dan-is-a-real-diamond-28386163.html |archive-date=17 August 2016}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Diamond_Dan"/>
==List of members==
===Grand Masters=== Grand Masters of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland:<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070918181644/http://www.grandorange.org.uk/parades/office_holders.html Office Holders], The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland</ref> * 1795: William Blacker (Unofficial) * 1798 Thomas Verner * 1801: George Ogle * 1818: Mervyn Archdall (to 1822) * 1822?: Earl O'Neill * 1828: Duke of Cumberland * 1836: Earl of Roden (Unofficial) * 1845: Earl of Enniskillen<ref>{{Cite web |date=4 March 2016 |title=Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI) |url=http://www.proni.gov.uk/introduction_enniskillen.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304060220/http://www.proni.gov.uk/introduction_enniskillen.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2016 |access-date=26 April 2016 |website=nidirect}}</ref> * 1886: Earl of Erne * 1914: Sir James Stronge, 5th Baronet * 1915: William H. H. Lyons * 1926:<ref>Year in which he first appears as Grand Master in the Belfast and Ulster Directory, P83</ref> Sir Edward Archdale, 1st Baronet * 1941:<ref>Year in which he first appears as Grand Master in the Belfast and Ulster Directory, P60a</ref> Sir Joseph Davison * 1948: J. M. Andrews * 1954: Sir William McCleery<ref name="biog">{{Cite web |title=Northern Ireland Parliamentary Elections Results: Biographies |url=http://www.election.demon.co.uk/stormont/biographies.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190226144802/http://www.election.demon.co.uk/stormont/biographies.html |archive-date=26 February 2019 |access-date=26 April 2016}}</ref> * 1957: Sir George Clark, 3rd Baronet * 1968: John Bryans * 1971: Martin Smyth * 1996: Robert Saulters * 2011: Edward Stevenson * 2025: Harold Henning
==University society == 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."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Welcome to the Orange Society |url=http://orange.society.qub.ac.uk/2007_06_01_archive.html |access-date=22 March 2021 |website=The Queen's University of Belfast {{!}} Orange Society}}{{Dead link|date=July 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
==See also== * Anti-Catholicism * List of general fraternities * Orange Order in Canada * Orange Order in Africa * Presbyterian Church in Ireland * Royal Black Institution
==Notes and references== {{Reflist|30em}}
==Further reading== {{refbegin|40em}} * {{Cite book |last=Kaufmann |first=Eric |url=http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryWorld/Irish/?view=usa&ci=9780199208487 |title=The Orange Order: A Contemporary Northern Irish History |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522133239/http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryWorld/Irish/?view=usa&ci=9780199208487 |archive-date=22 May 2011 |df=dmy-all}} * {{Cite book |last=Gallagher |first=Tom |url=https://archive.org/details/glasgowuneasypea00gall |title=Glasgow, the Uneasy Peace: Religious Tensions in Modern Scotland, 1819–1914 |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1987 |isbn=0-7190-2396-3 |url-access=registration}} * {{Cite book |last=McFarland |first=Elaine |url=https://archive.org/details/protestantsfirst0000mcfa |title=Protestants First: Orangeism in Nineteenth Century Scotland |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-7486-0202-X |url-access=registration}} * {{Cite book |last=Neal |first=Frank |title=Sectarian Violence: The Liverpool Experience, 1819–1914: An Aspect of Anglo–Irish History |publisher=Manchester University Press |year=1991 |isbn=0-7190-2348-3}} (Considered the principal study of English Orange traditions) * {{Cite book |last=Sibbert |first=R.M. |title=Orangeism in Ireland and throughout the Empire |publisher=London |year=1939}} (Strongly favourable) * {{Cite book |last=Senior |first=H. |title=Orangeism in Ireland and Britain, 1795–1836 |publisher=London |year=1966}} * {{Cite book |last=Gray |first=Tony |title=The Orange Order |publisher=The Bodley Head. London |year=1972 |isbn=0-370-01340-9}} {{refend}} '''Canada and United States:''' {{refbegin|30em}} * {{Cite book |url=http://www.fourcourtspress.ie/product.php?intProductID=735 |title=The Orange Order in Canada |publisher=Four Courts Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-1-84682-077-9 |editor-last=Wilson |editor-first=David A. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225011824/http://www.fourcourtspress.ie/product.php?intProductID=735 |archive-date=25 February 2009 |df=dmy-all}} * {{Cite book |last=Akenson |first=Don |title=The Orangeman: The Life & Ties of Ogle Gowan |publisher=Lorimer |year=1986 |isbn=0-88862-963-X}} * {{Cite journal |last=Cadigan |first=Sean T. |year=1991 |title=Paternalism and Politics: Sir Francis Bond Head, the Orange Order, and the Election of 1836 |journal=Canadian Historical Review |volume=72 |issue=3 |pages=319–347 |doi=10.3138/CHR-072-03-02 |s2cid=154595085}} * {{Cite journal |last=Currie |first=Philip |year=1995 |title=Toronto Orangeism and the Irish Question, 1911–1916 |journal=Ontario History |volume=87 |issue=4 |pages=397–409}} * {{Cite book |last=Denniss |first=Gary |title=The Spirit of the Twelfth: The story of the Orange Order in Canada GarDen press, 1982}} * {{Cite book |last=Gordon |first=Michael |title=The Orange riots: Irish political violence in New York City, 1870 and 1871 |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=1993 |isbn=0-8014-2754-1}} * {{Cite book |last1=Houston |first1=Cecil J. |url=https://archive.org/details/sashcanadaworehi0000hous |title=The sash Canada wore: A historical geography of the Orange Order in Canada |last2=Smyth, William J. |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=1980 |isbn=0-8020-5493-5 |url-access=registration}} * {{Cite book |last=Pennefather |first=R. S. |title=The orange and the black: Documents in the history of the Orange Order, Ontario, and the West, 1890–1940 |publisher=Orange and Black Publications |year=1984 |isbn=0-9691691-0-8}} * {{Cite journal |last=See |first=Scott W. |year=1983 |title=The Orange Order and Social Violence in Mid-nineteenth Century Saint John |journal=Acadiensis |volume=13 |issue=1 |pages=68–92}} * {{Cite journal |last=See |first=Scott W. |year=1991 |title=Mickeys and Demons' vs. 'Bigots and Boobies': The Woodstock Riot of 1847 |journal=Acadiensis |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=110–131}} * {{Cite book |last=See |first=Scott W. |title=Riots in New Brunswick: Orange Nativism and Social Violence in the 1840s |publisher=University of Toronto Press |year=1993 |isbn=0-8020-7770-6 |location=Toronto}} * {{Cite book |last=Senior |first=Hereward |url=https://archive.org/details/orangeismcanadia0000seni |title=Orangeism: The Canadian Phase |publisher=Toronto, New York, McGraw-Hill Ryerson |year=1972 |isbn=0-07-092998-X |url-access=registration}} * {{Cite journal |last=Way |first=Peter |year=1995 |title=The Canadian Tory Rebellion of 1849 and the Demise of Street Politics in Toronto |url=http://www.canadian-studies.info/main/images/stories/BJCSvol10.pdf |journal=British Journal of Canadian Studies |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=10–30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070630142619/http://www.canadian-studies.info/main/images/stories/BJCSvol10.pdf |archive-date=30 June 2007 |access-date=10 February 2007 |df=dmy-all}} * {{Cite journal |last=Winder |first=Gordon M |title=Trouble in the North End: The Geography of Social Violence in Saint John, 1840–1860 |journal=Errington and Comacchio |volume=1 |pages=483–500}} * Pierre-Luc Bégin (2008). " Loyalisme et fanatisme ", Petite histoire du mouvement orangiste Canadien, Les Éditions du Québécois, 2008, 200 p. ({{ISBN|2-923365-22-4}}). * Luc Bouvier, (2002). « Les sacrifiés de la bonne entente » Histoire des francophones du Pontiac, Éditions de l'Action nationale. {{refend}}
==External links== {{Commons category}} * [http://www.grandorangelodge.co.uk The Grand Orange Lodge Of Ireland] * [http://www.iloi.org/ The Independent Loyal Orange Institution] * [http://www.gole.org.uk/ Grand Orange Lodge of England] * [https://archive.today/20121222191904/http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/diaspora/guides/orange.shtml The Orange Order, Militant Protestantism and anti-Catholicism: A Bibliographical Essay (1999)] * [http://www.sneps.net/OO/orange.html Eric Kaufmann's Orange Order Page] {{Kingdom of Ireland}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Orange Order Category:1795 establishments in Ireland Category:Patriotic societies Category:Christian fundamentalist organizations based in Europe Category:Protestant orders and societies Category:Protestantism in the United Kingdom Category:Anti-Catholicism in Northern Ireland Category:Anti-Catholic organizations Category:Ulster unionist organisations Category:All-Ireland organisations Category:Ulster Scots Category:Critics of the Catholic Church Category:William III of England Category:Ulster loyalist organisations