In
Cities, Towns and villages across this Province the Orange Lodge is a witness
to and a unifier of both the religious and political aspirations of a proud
people.The Loyal Orange Institution was founded after the Battle of the Diamond on September 21, 1795. The skirmish was between the Roman Catholic Defenders and the Protestants of the area. When it ended the Protestants formed a circle, joined hands and declared their brotherhood in loyalty to the Crown, the Country and the Reformed Religion.
Hostile critics of Orangeism have claimed that the Institution was just another name for the "Peep O'Day Boys" who from 1784 had terrorised the countryside in their bitter struggles against the Defenders. But the Rev. Snowden Cupples, rector of Lisburn, Co Antrim writing in 1799 as Grand Master of the Co Antrim Orangemen, pointed out that the Orange Association should be be confounded , as it has often invidiously been, with the mutual and disgraceful outrages which prevailed in the Country of Armagh for several years preceding that period between certain Protestant, under the designation "Peep O'Day Boys" and Roman Catholics who assumed the name Defenders. With their transactions it has now connection or affinity. Before the Battle of the Diamond efforts had been made by representative Protestants and Roman Catholics to keep the peace. There was the Council of Seven - Colonel Cope, Archdall Cope, Mr Hardy, Councillor Archdall, and the priests Taggart, McFarland and Traynor, had negotiated a short-lived truce. The first shots at the Diamond were fired by the Defenders on Monday, September 21, 1795. The armies faced each other across the valley, the Protestants on Cranagill Hill and the Roman Catholics on Faughart Hill. The Protestants routed their enemies without suffering any casualties. The Defenders who were killed have been estimated at figures between 16 and 60. An eye witness put the number at 30, among them their commander Captain McGarry of White Cross near Markethill. It had been the intention of the Roman Catholics to drive the Protestants out of the country. The Diamond affray might have had a different result had not James Verner seized the boats to prevent Defenders from Tyrone and Derry from reaching the scene. The authorities kept a low profile apparently satisfied to leave the combatants to it. Their attitude was probably governed by the area commander's liking of the Protestant cause and he anticipated its victory. The commander Captain John Gifford of the Royal Dublin Militia, stationed at Portadown was to be accorded a pivotaa place in the founding of the Institution. Plowden, the English Roman Catholic historian, said of Gifford, to him is attributed the adoption of the title Orangemen, their original oath and obligation and the first regulations, by which they were organised into a society.
Orangeism spread rapidly throughout Ireland to the effect that in march 1798 the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland was established as the governing body for the organisation.
During the intervening years Orangeism has experienced many high points and also some difficult times.
The Grand Lodge twice in the 19th century dissolved itself though the organisation at large continued as before. Parades were banned and members violently attacked.
Through it all the Orange Institution remained true to its principles and in so doing became an organisation of mass appeal which successfully carried its ideals of civil and religious liberty into the life of a country and the community.
Orangeism in Ireland today is in a health vibrant stat- a way of life and culture that permeates all strands within the Protestant community.
The civil and religious liberty won by William at the Boyne in 1690 is enshrined in the ideals of the Orange Order of the new millennium and some 300 years on the ideals which won the Glorious Revolution are proving a bulwark for the majority in Northern Ireland in the determination to remain British.
In
Cities, Towns and villages across this Province the Orange Lodge is a witness
to and a unifier of both the religious and political aspirations of a proud
people.
Lodge affiliations are also jealously guarded in the Eire Border counties of Monaghan, Cavan, Donegal and Leitrim by minority communities who sincerely hold firm to their Reformed faith.
The Orangemen of two different states come together under the umbrella of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland and though the Eire Brethren are in a small minority their voice is heard with understanding and sympathy.
Close on 1400 Lodges operated in 125 Districts in 12 of Ireland's Counties: Antrim, Armagh, Cavan, Donegal, Down, Dublin and Wicklow, Fermanagh, Leitrim, Londonderry, Monaghan and Tyrone. Sixty of these Lodges continue to flourish in the Eire Counties, a remarkable statistic considering the sharp decline in the Protestant population in the near 70 years since British rule ended there.
In Northern Ireland, Orangeism is both an urban and rural phenomenon, which has an appeal to farmers, labourers, craftsmen, clerks, teachers, doctors, politicians, and clergymen that few other organisations in the World can match. members from all the Protestant denominations and pro-union political parties fit together within the Lodge Room and find a common purpose and policy of support for the position of Northern Ireland remaining within the United Kingdom.