Almost a hundred years ago, a split in the Orange Order to the formation of the Independent Orange Order. One of the founders of the Independent Order was Thomas Sloan who was something of a reluctant rebel.

Sloan had been born in Belfast in 1870, and worked in Harland and Wolff Shipyard. At dinner time in the plater's shed in the shipyard he held evangelical meetings in his capacity as a member of the Belfast Protestant Association.

The Belfast Protestant Association

The Belfast Protestant Association had been formed in 1894 by Arthur Trew, and held Sunday afternoon meetings at the Custom House Steps, a popular venue for open-air speakers. It was also involved in street politics, opposing Wolfe Tone commemorations in the late 1890's. In 1901 Trew was sentenced to a year in prison, and the BPA secretary Richard Braithwaite to six months, after disrupting a Roman Catholic parade to a Corpus Christi service at St. Malachy's in Belfast.

While Trew was in prison the leadership of the BPA was taken over by Sloan. Under his leadership, the BPA attacked the policies of the Irish Unionist Party, who were seen to be acquiescing in the Conservative government's policies towards Ireland. These included the Education Act of 1902, with its support for denominational education, and the setting up of a Royal Commission to investigate whether a university funded by the state should be made available to Irish Roman Catholics.

At a BPA meeting held in 1901, resolutions were passed condemning the governments policies since 1895. The chairman of the meeting said 'It seemed to him that the only party who had got anything from the government was Mr John Redmond and his satellites, the government was dealing out one set of laws for the north of Ireland and another for the south ... If Romanism made as rapid progress for the next twenty years as it had in the previous twenty, they would hear no more of Protestantism in these realms'.

The 1902 Twelfth

At the 1902 12th of July Orange demonstration, Sloan and the BPA again voiced their opposition to the policies of the Irish Unionist Party, which was led by Colonel Edward Saunderson, who was also Grand Master of Belfast. Their anger was increased by the governinent's decision to ban an Orange parade at Rostrevor, apparently with the acquiesance of the Grand Lodge. Interruptions to Saunderson began when he criticised the ban on the Rostrevor parade. A heckler demanded to know why these criticisms had not been raised in the House of Commons. Sloan, who was Master of St Michael's Total Abstinence LOL 1890, wanted to know why Saunderson had voted against the inspection of convent laundries during a debate on the Factory and Workshop amendment Bill of 1901, and climbed onto the platform.

The Election Campaign

Five days after the 12th, William Johnston of Ballykilbeg, Orange hero and MP for South Belfast died. The following day Arthur Trew was released from prison. However it was Sloan who the BPA nominated to fight the South Belfast by-election as an independent representing 'Protestant Democracy'. The Conservative Association nominated C.W. Dunbar-Buller to fight the seat.

In a newspaper interview Sloan said he had decided to stand for parliament because of the disgust felt by fellow Protestants and Orangemen at the 'apathy and indifference' to Protestant interests of the majority of the Ulster MPs 'it was that very attitude which led the Chief Secretary and the Prime Minister to ignore Irish Protestant remonstrances and to secretly and assiduously foster such outrageous demands as a purely Roman Catholic university supported by Protestant taxpayers'.

Samuel Beal, a prominent member of the BPA, when addressing an election meeting said 'they wanted a man in parliament who would be able to meet the nationalists on their own ground and grapple with them. Had Tom Sloan been in parliament when Wyndham had proclaimed the Rostrevor meeting of Orangemen he would have demanded an explanation of that cowardly and unmanly attack on the grand and glorious institution'.

Five days before the South Belfast by-election, the Grand Lodge of Belfast met with Colonel Saunderson in the chair. They passed a resolution condemning the action of Sloan on the 12th and called on the 'Orange brethren of South Belfast to show their resentment' by refusing to elect him. However Sloan had a lot of support amongst the grassroots of the Order, Springfield Temperance LOL 948 and Tyrone True Blue LOL 497 were amongst the lodges who publicly supported Sloan. He also had support from temperance organisations like the Rechabites and the Independent Order of Good Templars and the prominent trade union leader Alex Boyd, organiser of the Municipal Employee's Association, and the master of Donegall Road Temperance LOL.

Sloan said that his opponent was fighting 'protestantism, orangeism, total abstinence, trade unionism, and in a word... Protestant Belfast'. Sloan appealed to the working class by promising to support the demand for old age pensions and the rights of town tenants to own their own homes after paying rent for a number of years. Sloan won the election, polling 3795 votes a majority of 826 over Dunbar-Buller.

The Split with the Orange Order

The Grand Lodge of Belfast wrote to Sloan summoning him to attend a meeting in October. Sloan offered a verbal apology 'if his behaviour had exceeded constitutional bounds'; but the Grand Lodge insisted on a written apology which Sloan refused to give. Sloan was suspended for two years, and two members of the BPA were expelled, Thomas Galbraith for six years. On appeal to the Imperial Grand Lodge the sentences were upheld, and three warrants of lodges that had supported Sloan were also withdrawn Guiding Star of Sandy Row LOL 1026, Donegall Road Temperance LOL 731, and Queen Victoria Memorial Temperance LOL 700. Alex Boyd, Master of LOL 731, suggested the formation of an independent order, and Sloan reluctantly agreed.

A public meeting was organised by a committee drawn from the three expelled lodges, which took place in Belfast on 11 June 1903, with a crowd of 8,000 attending. Three resolutions were proposed the first called for the formation of an independent Orange institution, the second instructed the committee to make arrangements for the July celebrations, and the third stated that no apology should be offered to the Orange leaders from the expelled lodges. One of the speakers, James H Mateer, said 'We as loyal Orangemen assembled, who have either been suspended or expelled for offences which are against our Orange principles or laws, cannot be denied the right to meet together in the name of him whose colours we wear'.

The Independent Twelfth

The first 12th demonstration was held at Dundonald with around 500 brethren taking part. Sloan proposed resolutions demanding the inspection of all convents, opposing the establishment of a Roman Catholic University, and resisting any change to the monarch's accession declaration.

The chairman of the platform party was Lindsay Crawford, who was born in Lisburn, but now lived in Dublin. He was a member of the Grand Lodge of Ireland and the Editor of the 'Irish Protestant'. This had been established in 1901 and aimed to 'warn Irish Churchmen of the dangers of Ritualism and Sacredotalism ... and to unite Irish Protestants in the face of common perils and in defence of common interests'. Crawford's political views, however were to cause problems for Sloan and the IOO. Another member of the platform party was Rev D D Boyle, minister of St James' Presbyterian Church, Ballymoney.

In the two months following the July demonstration around 500 members of the old order were expelled for taking part. By February 1904 the IOO was said to have three districts Sandy Row, Shankill and Ballymacarrett and fourteen lodges in Belfast and 23 lodges in County Antrim. The Imperial Grand Lodge of Ireland was inaugurated on 20 February with Lindsay Crawford as Grand Master, John Peacock, Deputy Grand Master, Rev D D Boyle, Grand Chaplain, and Thomas Sloan, Deputy Grand Chaplain. The 1904 12th saw two demonstrations Sloan, Boyd and a member of the Grand Lodge of England speaking at Belfast; and Lindsay Crawford speaking at Ballymoney.

The Magheramorne Manifesto

For the 1905 12th demonstration Crawford drew up the Magheramorne Manifesto - a controversial document seen by some as advocating Home Rule and which referred to unionism as a 'discredited creed'. Sloan signed the manifesto but covered himself by saying that he did not agree with the Grand Master in everything that he did 'Mr Crawford and himself could live and agree to differ in some things'. At the end of July he told a BPA meeting that 'Lindsay Crawford with all his ability and all his pluck had not thrown the mantle of mesmerism over him'.

Other brethren took more decisive action, including Nathaniel Bonar of Johnston Memorial ILOL 13, and John Keown, was a member of No Surrender ILOL 4, a delegate to the Independent Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland and chairman of No 1 branch of the BPA, who resigned over the manifesto.

Sloan the Unionist

Once in Parliament, Sloan was quick to try and the mend the fences with the Ulster Unionist MPs. By the middle of 1903 he had told his supporters that he had been able to develop friendly relationships with the other Ulster MPs and claimed that the secretary of the Ulster group at Westminster had effected a reconciliation between himself and Saunderson. The IOO had been refused official representation on the Ulster Unionist Council, which had been formed at the end of 1904, but Sloan told the 1905 12th that two members had served on the council 'in their capacity as Protestants'.

In the 1906 election campaign Sloan dissociated himself 'unreservedly' from any portion of the Magheramorne Manifesto which had been 'construed as antagonistic to the settled policy of the Unionist Party in Ulster', and he promised loyal co-operation with the Ulster Unionist party at Westminster and adopted the resolutions to be submitted to a forthcoming meeting of the Ulster Unionist Council. He also attended the UUC demonstration at the Ulster Hall on 2 January, as a member of the platform party. When Saunderson died in October 1906, Sloan was unable to attend the funeral but sent a magnificent wreath of carnations and dahlias.

The 1906 election

Despite his attempts to re-integrate himself into unionism, the Unionists still put up a candidate against Sloan in the 1906 election, Lord Arthur Hill. Sloan campaigned as a defender of Protestant rights and also as a people's candidate, saying 'He would make his enemies tremble with the desire to do the will of the people, he was the tool of no political party ... and had been elected by the people, for the people, independently and irrespective of political parties'.

Sloan felt that the ordinary people were being undervalued by the unionist establishment. He claimed to support all the Trades Council's demands, and in addition was in favour of home ownership, outdoor relief and temperance. He held his seat being elected by 4,450 votes to 3,634.

Parliamentary Career

In Parliament he claimed that he was in favour of 'every Social Measure for the Good of the People', and voted in favour of old-age pensions, the reform of the Poor Law, and also supported Lloyd George's radical 1909 People's Budget. He was also concerned with temperance issues, and campaigned for the earlier closure of public houses.

Sloan was also the Chairman of the London-based Protestant Alliance, and in this capacity he lectured throughout England and Scotland on Protestant issues. On 5 November 1908 he put before the House of Commons a call for convents and monasteries to be subject to investigation by commissioners, and to be subject to laws on health and safety. On the day of the debate a petition collected by the Protestant Alliance was presented to the Speaker of the House. It contained over three-quarters of a million signatures and was one of the largest petitions ever presented to Parliament, taking eight miles of paper and weighing ten hundredweight.

In the January 1910 election campaign Sloan was defeated by James Chambers, who polled 5,772 votes to Sloan's 3,553. He stood again in the December 1910 election, opening his campaign with a lecture 'Are the Principles of the Reformation being maintained ?', but was defeated again.

Decline of the IOO

In 1908 Crawford was suspended from the IOO for his pro-Home Rule writings, after his appeal to the Grand Lodge was upheld.

One lodge, Martin Luther ILOL 56 returned its warrant in protest at the treatment of Crawford. Sloan replaced Crawford as Grand Master, but the IOO began to decline.

In the Home Rule Crisis, the IOO campaigned strongly for the whole of Ireland to remain within the United Kingdom, and opposed the idea of a provisional government for Ulster alone. At the 1913 12th demonstration Sloan voiced opposition to the abandonment of Southern Protestants to Rome rule. After the war demonstrations continued to be held until 1920.

Austen Morgan writes that 'The IOO was most authentically Thomas Sloan's movement, its historical uncertainty reflecting his hesitant revolt within orangeism and unionism'. The creation of the Ulster Unionist Council with a quarter of its delegates being Orangemen blunted Sloan's criticism that the Orange voice was being ignored within Unionism. The seriousness of the Third Home Rule Crisis meant that unionism could not afford to be divided and Sloan's movement would be the casualty.