Has the Orange a future?
Brian Campbell examines the crisis facing the Orange Order and
asks, are they capable of change?
There was a period of a few hours on Sunday when the Orange Order
could have stepped away from an unwinnable war. It could have
beaten a tactical retreat and gathered strength because of it.
Instead, the Orange Order as a whole showed itself to be
incapable of sense or decency.
You could almost say it is not the Orange Order's fault because
that is the type of organisation it is. No-one really expected
the sectarian deaths of three children to change the course of an
organisation so steeped in sectarian fundamentalism - both
political and religious.
But that is to misunderstand how political groupings change and
to forget that the Orange Order has changed radically at
different times in Irish history. The events of the last week
represent another deep crisis for the Orange Order which look set
to change it profoundly once more.
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The events of the last week represent another deep crisis for the
Orange Order which look set to change it profoundly once more
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The crisis is most clearly evident in a deep split at leadership
level. The divisions have been articulated so far by a
representative group of the Order's chaplains (an important
group; after all, it claims to be a religious organisation) and
by the Portadown district, which is the hardline heartland. One
wants the Drumcree protest to end; the other wants to carry on.
Both claim to be the upholders of Orange principles.
Of course, as the world changes principles can become millstones.
There was a time when the Orange Order barred Presbyterians from
membership until, in 1834, as Catholics agitated for greater
political power, the Orange leadership sought Protestant unity in
order to safeguard their interests. Thus the landed Anglican
leadership of the Orange Order co-opted the Presbyterians.
Today, Orangemen have other principled positions, such as
refusing to talk to ``convicted terrorists''. It is such an
unbelievably hollow position. Every July in the H-Blocks of Long
Kesh wings full of ``convicted terrorists'' construct Orange
arches, fashion homemade sashes and drums and hold Orange marches
complete with flute bands, while outside Orange Lodges march up
to the prison walls and play Lambeg drums long into the night.
Every Twelfth UDA and UVF bands parade with Orange Lodges for all
the world to see (the best place to see is on BBC television
where live coverage includes discussion of the significance of
particular flowers in Orange lapels while the representatives of
sectarian death squads fill the screen).
The Orange Order and loyalist killers are well acquainted.
Everyone knows and it is an obvious indictment of the Irish and
British media that they have not firmly nailed this pathetic
excuse for refusing to talk to nationalists.
Other principled Orange positions have changed with the ebb and
flow of social forces in Ireland. Indeed, there have been some
remarkable changes. For example, in its early history, the Orange
Order was at one time anti-Unionist. Peter Berresford Ellis, in
his excellent Connolly Association pamphlet, Orangeism: Myth and
Reality, explains:
``The first attempt to pass an Act of Union in the Irish
Parliament in 1799 was...easily rejected. Lecky, the Unionist
historian, points out that there is no record of a single Orange
Lodge favouring the Union. There were nineteen leaders of the
Order in senior positions in the Dublin parliament and seventeen
voted against the Union.
``As Grand Master of the Orange Order, [John Claudius] Bereford,
for example, must have bemused survivors of the United Irish when
he seemed to support their position on independence by declaring
that the Union with England would `see the destruction of the
country'. He went on: `Proud of the name of Irishman, I hope
never to... see my country governed by laws enacted by a parliament
over which she can have no control... (the proposed Union was) a
measure so destructive of their commerce and prosperity, and so
humiliating to their pride as a nation.'
A combination of bribery and the threat of coercion persuaded
most of the Orange leaders to change their minds and vote for the
Union. Nevertheless, ``all the Orange Lodges of the nine Ulster
counties organised a meeting and issued the declaration that the
proposed Union would bring `inevitable ruin to the peace,
prosperity and happiness of Ireland.''' How right they were.
A short time after this, we are told, the Orange Order held their
first march from Drumcree Church.
How times change. And they are changing once again. Two
underlying realities have produced the current crisis within the
Orange Order. The first is the increasing numbers and confidence
of nationalists in the Six Counties. At Drumcree there was a
placard written by an Orangeman. `Croppies lie down', it read and
it can only have produced defiant laughter among nationalists. No
longer is the Six Counties a Protestant state for a Protestant
people. Some Orangemen see that. And some don't.
Of course the increasing numbers and confidence do not always
easily translate into that defiant laughter. It has taken great
courage for the people of Portadown's Garvaghy Road to stand up
to Orange sectarianism. Their bravery will guarantee a better
future for everyone.
The second (connected) reality is the existence of the Good
Friday Agreement and the results of the consequent referendum and
elections. They have changed the political landscape entirely. In
particular, the political strength of nationalists and
republicans has created institutions which will pursue equality
and create an all-Ireland focus.
Crucially, the only serious opposition to this new political
project is gathered together in the Orange Order and the other
loyal institutions. For many of them, their stand at Drumcree is
aimed squarely at the Agreement and at its equality agenda.
To the British government, it is also aimed squarely at their
rule of law. It is difficult to see how Tony Blair could do
anything but face down the Orange Order.
Ironically, by doing that, he also exposed their sectarian,
supremacist agenda. When that inevitably led to Catholic deaths -
heartbreakingly, they were the deaths of three small boys - the
Orange Order was shamed before the entire world.
David Trimble saw immediately what it meant and called for the
Drumcree protest to end. It probably saved his political career.
He is set on a protracted rearguard action through the political
process rather than any apocalyptic confrontation.
Others have not been so smart and they are continuing their
protest while denying any responsibility for the deaths. Once
again it is an unbelievably hollow position. It is not as if they
didn't have the experience of three previous Drumcree protests
when hundreds of nationalist homes were also firebombed and when
loyalist violence was widespread. They knew the same would happen
this year and they did nothing to stop it, not even at Drumcree
itself. Sectarian violence was very much part of the Drumcree
protest.
There are those who have sought to defend the Orange Order. Most
prominent and impassioned among them is Ruth Dudley Edwards, a
Dublin-born revisionist historian who now lives in London. Her
constant refrain is that the Orangemen are decent people who feel
frightened and lost in the face of current political change. She
sees in them people who have stood against the ``fascist thugs'' of
republicanism and who now face the prospect of those enemies
being allowed into government and being released from prison.
Her articles and media appearances have been like a cry for help
born out of frustration. She lashes out at Breandan Mac Cionnaith
as if he is responsible for all the Orange Order's ills. In
reality, Ruth Dudley Edwards is defending the indefensible. It is
neither here nor there that Orangemen are ``decent'' individuals. I
can readily accept that many of them are. It is maybe more
difficult to accept that many of them believe they are part of an
organisation which practices civil and religious liberty, but
many of them undoubtedly do believe it. The problem is that they
are utterly wrong, as a quick look at the history and practices
of the Orange Order will confirm.
Their origins are as an anti-Catholic force, set up to further
the interests of the Ascendancy. By word and deed they have
constantly defined themselves in terms of anti-Catholicism and at
times they have been a useful tool to further British interests
in Ireland. In modern times there could not be a single adult
nationalist in the Six Counties whose experience of them is not
as a sectarian organisation.
Decent people, by giving allegiance to the Orange Order, are
being sectarian.
Now, in their new-found isolation, the Orange Order should
reassess their position in the modern world. Whose interests do
they now serve? As their old certainties crumble round them -
both within politics in Ireland and the British monarchy - can
they come to terms with change? Or will they remain true to form
and continue to be a reactionary bulwark against progressive
politics in Ireland? We may know soon enough.
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