Slicing open Orange history
Orangeism: Myth and Reality
By Peter Berresford Ellis
Published by The Connolly Association
Price £1.50 (incl p&p) from Four Provinces Bookshop, 244 Gray's
Inn Road, London, WC1X 8JR (phone: 0171 833 3022)
In these interesting times many people must be looking for
reliably critical information on the Orange Order. Well, they
need look no further. The ever-reliable Connolly Association has
published this short history of the Orange Order in time to add
much-needed background knowledge to the current debate about the
bowler-hatted brethren's rights and wrongs.
Peter Berresford Ellis brings us back to 1690 and immediately
scuppers the Orangemen's much repeated claim to be upholding
`civil and religious liberties' won at the Battle of the Boyne.
Not at all, he argues: ``The Boyne was not the most significant
battle of the Williamite conquest of Ireland - Aughrim and the
ending of the siege of Limerick a year later, in 1691, were the
more important events. And far from William's victory bringing in
a period of `civil and religious liberty', for both dissenting
Protestants as well as Catholics it brought in over a century of
loss of rights which had already been secured - on paper, at
least, in Acts 13 and 15 of James II's Dublin Parliament in
1689.''
Indeed, he adds, ``the so-called `religious liberty' won by
William of Orange was the cause of a quarter of a million Ulster
Presbyterians migrating to the New World colonies between the
years 1717-1776 alone.''
Eventually and inevitably the Catholics and Dissenters united in
a republican movement which became, in 1791, the United Irishmen.
The Anglican Establishment saw their ruin in such an alliance.
The Anglican Archbishop of Armagh, Hugh Boulter, wrote: ``The
worst of this is that it stands to unite Protestant and Papist,
and whenever that happens, goodbye to the English interest in
Ireland forever.''
So it was in 1795, when the Orange Order was founded in the
fertile sectarian ground of Armagh, that it was quickly
recognised by leaders of the Anglican Ascendancy as a movement
which could destroy the United Irishmen.
Berresford Ellis writes: ``Therefore the Orange Order enters Irish
history as a High Tory conservative, sectarian and
counter-revolutionary force - an elitist group organised and
governed by the gentry, utilising farmers and yeomen of the
Anglican faith, as a terrorist counterpoise to the United Irish
movement then striving to unite Catholic and Protestant in a
common reformist and national cause. Dissenters were excluded
from its ranks, it is important to emphasise this.''
For its first four decades the Order was exclusively Anglican.
It is interesting to note that the Orange Order, as with the
Anglican Ascendancy, was opposed to Union with Britain which was
proposed following the United Irishmen rebellion of 1798. All the
Orange Lodges of the nine Ulster counties organised a meeting and
issued a declaration that the proposed Union would bring
``inevitable ruin to the peace, prosperity and happiness of
Ireland.'' How times change.
Following the Act of Union the Orange Order declined because the
Anglican Ascendancy no longer had need of it. Then came the
Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 and the rise of Daniel
O'Connell. In opposition was born Presbyterian Orangeism. In 1834
the Orange Order opened its membership to all Protestants.
Following this, the Orange Order became an organisation for
working-class Protestants and its fortunes ``rose and fell in
direct relationship to the rise and fall of the Irish national
liberation movements''.
Berresford Ellis ends this fine study by saying: ``For this
historian, there is a sadness that a people can be so utterly
manipulated by a misunderstanding of history. Instead of being
shown the reality of a common past, the Protestants of Ulster
have been deliberately subverted into believing a mythological
history. Their view of William of Orange and the Boyne Water is a
dream of a world which never existed. The worse thing is that,
lacking the knowledge of the realities of the common past shared
with their fellow Irishmen and women, they are still disputing
the realities of the present.''
My recommendation is: buy as many copies of this short
publication as you can and distribute them to as many people as
you can. And do it as soon as you can.
By Brian Campbell
The story of Down's republicans
In the Heat of the Hurry
By Marcas MacRuairí
Price £5
Available from Green Cross Art Shop, 51/55 Falls Road, Belfast
With the 200th anniversary of the 1798 United Irish Rebellion
fast approaching, you can expect a flood of books on the subject.
And, most heartening, many of them will be works of local
history.
In the Heat of the Hurry, by former Republican prisoner, Marcas
MacRuairí, is among the best of its type. It is a history of
republicanism in County Down from the 1790s to the 1950s and it
is well-researched (both from interviews with veteran republicans
and from secondary sources) and readable. It flows along at a
lively pace and manages to combine wit with learning.
While books such as these are largely for a local readership,
this one would also be attractive to a wider audience. Many
famous republicans - such as Young Irelanders John Mitchel and
John Martin - came from County Down and the area even elected
Eamon de Valera. Indeed, a strength of the book is the way in
which it places local happenings in the wider political context.
Local events are well-told: ``Operations in Down continued into
June and July 1922: there were gun attacks on Castlewellan and
Ardglass RUC Barracks and the Specials were fired on at Kilclief.
Before attacks would take place all roads and telegraph cables in
the surounding areas would be blocked and cut. On the night of
the Castlewellan attack, James O'Hagan of Moyad was forced to dig
a trench across the road to prevent reinforcements getting to the
town. The following day James was forced to fill it in again by
the British Army! The attack on Castlewellan Barracks was only
halted when smoke started billowing from the door. However, the
fire in the building was not as fierce as the thick smoke
suggested and damage was only minimal. RUC personnel, who were
drinking in a pub in the Lower Square during the attack, were
kept pinned down by Volunteer Frank McCartan shooting through the
windows with a rifle.''
The book has some accounts never published before and it will be
snapped up by County Down republicans. The cover needs a
sub-title to distinguish it but I'm sure its reputation will make
it well-known.
By Brian Campbell
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