Opinion

The following excerpt from the Belfast Telegraph is a well written view from a Roman Catholic, Nationalist who did her own research.
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We should not blacken the
Orangeman

Exclusive extracts from a controversial new book by Dublin historian Ruth Dudley Edwards on the
Loyal Institutions, what they think, what they do and the road that led to Drumcree

I SPRING from a southern Roman Catholic, nationalist tradition myself, but over the decades,
I have become aware of my tribe's effrontery and laziness of mind where Northern Protestants,
particularly Orangemen, are concerned.

'Why doesn't the British government stop those dreadful bigots from strutting through nationalist
areas?' is the cry from people who've never met an ordinary Orangeman.

And with the next breath they say that unionists have no culture worth talking about.

During the past few years, as I researched my book, I have met hundreds of members of the
loyal institutions; the Apprentice Boys, the Orange Order and the Royal Black Institution.

I have never known a community as misrepresented and traduced.

In their inflexibility, though, they have certainly given plenty of ammunition to their enemies.

But then the qualities that enable people to endure a life under siege are not those that make
for intellectual nimble-footedness and a talent for public relations.

Most members of the loyal institutions are ordinary, decent people, many of whom have
endured extraordinary fear and suffering without becoming bitter.

Many are among the finest people I have ever met and live lives that are an inspiring witness to their faith.

And others, of course, are very bigoted and nasty.

Why they join

SAM: "It's part of us. My father and my grandfather were in the local lodge. As a little
boy, the Twelfth of July was a big day. I had bands singing in my ears. It was something that
was just part of your culture. It was almost like Christmas when you were a kid."

BRIAN: "I resisted it for a long time after I became a Christian in 1954.
I saw conflict between principle and practice. But having thought about it and realizing I believed in what the institution stood for,
I saw a parallel between the church and the Orange Order."

"The Church is imperfect; the institution is imperfect. So I realized I should be inside."

"Even in the days when I was critical of the Orange Order from outside it, when I saw an
Orange parade, I saw a particular man I knew well, and I knew that I could not apply any of my
criticism of the Order to him. I chose his lodge."

"So you see, the ways people live their lives speak louder than anything else."

"This is why I feel strongly that as an institution we don't need a professional PR person; we
simply need Orangemen on the ground, faithful people with integrity, for that speaks volumes."

CHRIS: "There's an element of father to son, but there would be a lot of people in our
lodge whose parents would never have been involved; people who just feel a need to identify themselves.

"As a kid I always wanted to be an Orangeman, because of what was happening with the bands. I loved the bands.

"My father was first in the family to be a member of the Orange Order. He joined much to the
chagrin of the entire family, who thought it was a lot of crap.

"There was a sort of a left-wing fundamentalist Protestant element in my family. Grandfather was
a Cooneyite; they didn't even believe in churches."

WILLIAM: "I joined because some of the folk who were a little older than me that I
respected a lot were in the Orange and they were folk who were Christians to begin with.

"They were folk who were working within the community, part of community life, and I thought,
well, they're older, they're mature and they believe it's important and has something to give.

"I did it undoubtedly primarily for the sake of history and identity with the Protestant people
throughout the generations. My forefathers were in it, my grandfather was in it, certainly I was
going to keep the lifeline so to speak. "And I stayed with it through thick and thin
because I believe that when you look through its qualifications and its principles, if men can live by
it, it gives them a good foundation of life and it holds on to principles that society is losing at this
stage, like the importance of family life and respect for elders.

"If you sit in a lodge meeting and the 89-year-old speaks everybody's quiet and gives him respect
and listens. And that isn't happening generally in society."

"They tend to separate the young, the middle-aged and the old - even the Churches
tend to separate them. I think that's very important..."

TO Alf, who was 90 when I met him and who had been a member of his lodge for 72 years, his
involvement with the Orange Order was a matter of the greatest pride.

Early in our conversation he pulled out a copy of its Law and Ordinances and read to me, his voice trembling with emotion:
'Basis of the institution: The institution is composed of Protestants, united
and resolved to the utmost of their power to support and defend the rightful Sovereign, the
Protestant religion, the Laws of the Realm, and the Succession to the Throne in the House of Windsor,
being Protestant and united further for the defence of their own Persons and Properties, and the maintenance of the Public Peace.'

It is exclusively an Association of those who are attached to the religion of the Reformation, and
will not admit into its brotherhood persons whom an intolerant spirit leads to persecute, injure or
upbraid any man on account of his religious opinions. They associate also in honour of KING
WILLIAM III, Prince of Orange, whose name they bear, as supporters of his glorious memory.
Alf is one of many Orangemen who cannot see how anyone could find such a statement
objectionable; the principle of religious tolerance is for them an imperative.

Over and over again, people like him spoke to me of the importance of respect for those of different
religious persuasions...

Anyone wishing to join the Orange Order will be told of 'The Qualifications of an Orangeman', to
which he is expected to live up.

'The qualifications show what the commission is and what's expected of people,' said another
Orangeman. 'And people fall short of what's expected.'

They fall short of what's expected from their respective churches too, but it doesn't mean to
say the whole Church is entirely wrong because of that. And the same applies to the Orange
institution.'As Orangemen frequently and plaintively point out, the organisation is not a
secret society but a society with secrets, and very few of them at that.

How can an organisation be secret they ask, when its members parade openly in groups with banners declaring where they are from and what they stand for?
"The only secrets the Orange has are related to its ritual," said an Orangeman.

"There has to be something mysterious to make you want to join and find out. That's what creates the male bonding.

"The fact that we know what the ladder stands for on our sash may not be earth shattering, but it matters to us."
His father is in the same lodge; his mother refers to what they do in the lodge as 'playing silly beggars.' They don't take offence.

"Sure it's childish. That's why we don't want to do these things in public. It's not because they're bad, but because they're stupid."

The Faithful Tribe By Ruth Dudley Edwards is published by Harper Collins on June 21 1999.
Price £17.99
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