Orange Order

This article is about the Northern Ireland order. For Dutch dynastic knighthood, see Order of the House of Orange. For Dutch chivalric order, see Order of Orange-Nassau. For others, see Order of Orange.

Loyal Orange Institution
Founded21 September 1795; 229 years ago (1795-09-21)
Loughgall, County Armagh, NI
TypeFraternal order
AffiliationIndependent
StatusActive
EmphasisProtestant
ScopeInternational
Colors  Orange and   Purple
Flag
NicknameOrange Order
HeadquartersBelfast, Northern Ireland
United Kingdom
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The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, is an international Protestant fraternal order based in Northern Ireland and primarily associated with Ulster Protestants. It also has lodges in England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland, as well as in parts of the Commonwealth of Nations and the United States.[1][2][3]

The Orange Order was founded by Ulster Protestants in County Armagh in 1795, during a period of Protestant–Catholic sectarian conflict, as a fraternity sworn to maintain the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. The all-island Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland was established in 1798. Its name is a tribute to the Dutch-born Protestant king William of Orange, who defeated Catholic king James II in the Williamite–Jacobite War (1689–1691). The Order is best known for its yearly marches, the biggest of which are held on or around 12 July (The Twelfth), a public holiday in Northern Ireland.

The Orange Order is a conservative, British unionist[4][5] and Ulster loyalist[6][7] organisation. Thus it has traditionally opposed Irish nationalism/republicanism and campaigned against Scottish independence.[8] The Order sees itself as defending Protestant civil and religious liberties, whilst critics accuse it of being sectarian,[9] triumphalist,[10][11][12][13] and supremacist.[13][14][15][16] It does not accept non-Protestants as members unless they convert and adhere to its principles, nor does it accept Protestants married to non-Protestants.[17][18][19] Orange marches through Catholic neighbourhoods are controversial and have often led to violence,[20][21] such as the Drumcree conflict.

  1. ^ Page, Chris (30 August 2015). "Orange Order on the equator: Keeping the faith in Ghana". BBC. Archived from the original on 19 July 2021. Retrieved 16 May 2017. It is perhaps unsurprising that the order has outposts in countries like Australia and Canada where ex-pats from Northern Ireland have emigrated. But that is not how the order took root in the West African countries Ghana and Togo. The first Orange lodge in what is now Ghana was founded in 1918.
  2. ^ Benedetto, Robert; McKim, Donald K. (6 October 2009). Historical Dictionary of the Reformed Churches. Scarecrow Press. p. 353. ISBN 978-0-8108-7023-9. Most of the organization's lodges are located in [Northern] Ireland, England, and Scotland, although others can be found throughout the British Commonwealth, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Africa. The lodges of every country are independent, but the Orange Order meets in a triennial world council.
  3. ^ "Welcome to the Grand Orange Lodge". Orange Order. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 15 May 2013. We are a Protestant fraternity with members throughout the world. Autonomous Grand Lodges are found in Scotland, England, the United States of America, West Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
  4. ^ "Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland | Fraternal Organisation | Belfast". Orange Order. Retrieved 8 July 2024.
  5. ^ Twelfth Resolutions 2013 Archived 28 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  6. ^ Smithey, Lee. Unionists, Loyalists, and Conflict Transformation in Northern Ireland. Oxford University Press, 2011. p.56
  7. ^ McAuley, James. Very British Rebels?: The Culture and Politics of Ulster Loyalism. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015. p.98
  8. ^ "Scottish independence: Orange Lodge registers to campaign for a 'No' vote" Archived 16 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine. BBC News. 25 June 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  9. ^ Govan, D.H. (2021). "Towards a religious understanding of the Orange Order: Belfast 1910 to 1914". Irish Studies Review. 29 (4): 501–514. doi:10.1080/09670882.2021.1976445. S2CID 238584932. To most outsiders, it is a sectarian remnant and an obdurate barricade to progress, but for its members and supporters, the Order exists to defend Protestantism and civil and religious liberty across the globe. Certainly, the Order describes itself as a religious brotherhood, and whatever else it might be – imperialist, violent, gauche – it is ultimately sectarian.
  10. ^ "Orangemen take part in Twelfth of July parades". BBC News. 12 July 2010. Archived from the original on 17 July 2010. Retrieved 25 August 2010. Some marches have been a source of tension between nationalists who see the parades as triumphalist and intimidating, and Orangemen who believe it is their right to walk on public roads.
  11. ^ "Protestant fraternity returns to spiritual home". Reuters. 30 May 2009. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 25 August 2010. The Orange Order's parades, with their distinctive soundtrack of thunderous drums and pipes, are seen by some Catholics in Northern Ireland as a triumphalist display.
  12. ^ "Ormeau Road frustration". An Phoblacht. 27 April 2000. Archived from the original on 28 January 2012. Retrieved 25 August 2010. The overwhelming majority of nationalists view Orange parades as triumphalist coat trailing exercises.
  13. ^ a b "Kinder, gentler or same old Orange?". Irish Central. 23 July 2009. Archived from the original on 14 November 2011. Retrieved 25 August 2010. The annual Orange marches have passed relatively peacefully in Northern Ireland this year, and it seems a good faith effort is underway to try and reorient the day from one of triumphalism to one of community outreach and a potential tourist attraction ... The 12th may well have been a celebration of a long-ago battle at the Boyne in 1690, but it came to symbolize for generations of Catholics the "croppie lie down" mentality on the Orange side. The thunderous beat of the huge drums was just a small way of instilling fear into the Nationalist communities, while the insistence on marching wherever they liked through Nationalist neighbourhoods was also a statement of supremacy and contempt for the feelings of the other community.
  14. ^ Connolly, Sean J (2008). Divided kingdom: Ireland, 1630–1800. Oxford University Press. p. 432. Modern Irish republicans may look back to the United Irishmen as the founders of their tradition. But the one present-day organisation that can trace an unbroken descent from the 1790s is the Protestant supremacist Orange Order.
  15. ^ Roe, Paul (2005). Ethnic violence and the societal security dilemma. Routledge. p. 62. Ignatieff explains how the victory of William of Orange over Catholic King James 'became a founding myth of ethnic superiority ... The Ulstermen's reward, as they saw it, was permanent ascendancy over the Catholic Irish'. Thus, Orange Order marches have come to symbolise the supremacy of Protestantism over Catholicism in Northern Ireland.
  16. ^ Wilson, Ron (1976). "Is it a religious war?". A flower grows in Ireland. University Press of Mississippi. p. 127. At the close of the eighteenth century, Protestants, again feeling the threat of the Catholic majority, began forming secret societies which coalesced into the Orange Order. Its main purpose has always been to maintain Protestant supremacy
  17. ^ "... No catholic and no-one whose close relatives are catholic may be a member." Northern Ireland The Orange State, Michael Farrell
  18. ^ McGarry, John & O'Leary, Brendan (1995). Explaining Northern Ireland: Broken Images. Blackwell Publishers. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-631-18349-5.
  19. ^ Lynch, Paul (31 October 2005). "Perspective – The Orange Marches". Australian Broadcasting Commission. Archived from the original on 21 September 2011. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  20. ^ Curtis, Jennifer (2014). Human Rights as War by Other Means: Peace Politics in Northern Ireland. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 122. ISBN 9780812209877. Loyal (Protestant) orders, the largest being the Orange Order, hold the most well-known and controversial parades.
  21. ^ Reardon, Lawrence C. (2006). The Catholic Church and the Nation-State: Comparative Perspectives. Georgetown University Press. p. 126. ISBN 1589017242. The 'Marching Days' beginning on July 12 each year ... are considered highlights of the Protestant calendar. A few of theses marches, wind their way past some Catholic enclaves, a move considered provocative by some nationalists, that ensures resistance, trouble and, occasionally, violence.