The Orange Order & Sectarianism in Ireland
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
The Orange Order & sectarianism in Ireland The Orange Order - an enemy of ALL workers It is unfortunate, if perhaps somewhat inevitable, that the now annual battles around the ‘marching season’ fall along religious lines. The Orange parades are being used to test the supposed neutrality of the northern regime and the PSNI in particular. The losing side in this dangerous game however is likely to be the working class, Protestant and Catholic, as the confronta- tions and the sectarian attacks that occur around the Orange marches drive people further into ‘their own’ communities. The reality of the Orange Order is that it ecute on behalf of the victims of Orange is a counter-revolutionary institution set attacks. They also sent special missions up and maintained to target not just to the area to undermine the Orange Catholics but also ‘disloyal’ Protestants. Order’s influence. It’s formation and spread was encouraged Indeed the Orange Order probably played by the British state in the years leading a key part in ensuring the failure of the up to the 1798 rebellion precisely in or- 1798 rebellion. At the time General John der to drive a wedge between ordinary Knox, the architect of this policy de- Catholics and Protestants. The 12th of scribed the Orange Order as “the only July was picked as the key date to pro- barrier we have against the United Irish- vide an alternative attraction to the men”[2] after the failed rebellion he wrote marking of Bastille day and in itself to “the institution of the Orange Order was INSIDE: mark the sectarian massacre that led to of infinite use”[3] . The survival of the Or- the formation of the Orange Order. ange Order since, and in particular the • Loyalism and the The Orange Order was born in Armagh special place it was given in the sectar- Protestant working class in 1795 as part of an armed terror cam- ian make up of the northern state (every paign to deny full citizenship rights to single head of the 6 counties has also been • Time to stop beating the Catholics. This was in the context of a senior member of the Orange Order), struggles between landlords and tenants reflect its success in this role. Orange Drum in the area of which the Anglican Arch- The strategy was simple. In order to pre- bishop of Armagh said “the worst of this • Marching to nowhere vent Protestant workers identifying with is that it stands to unite Protestant and their Catholic neighbours the order of- Papist, and whenever that happens, good- • Stirring Up Sectarian fered an anti-Catholic society, led by the bye to the English interest in Ireland”. wealthy Protestants that offered all Prot- Hatred Specifically the penal laws forbade Catho- estants a place in its ranks, and the prom- lics from bearing arms, but radical (and ise of promotion and privilege. The an- •King Billy Revisited mostly Protestant) volunteer companies nual parades were a key part of this strat- in the 1780's had been recruiting and •The 1798 Rebellion and egy, they filled two roles. They allowed arming Catholics with the “the full sup- the working class Protestant members a the creation of the port of a radical section of Protestant po- day in the sun to mix with their ‘betters’ litical opinion”[1]. Orange Order and at the same time lord it over their The sectarian attacks that accompany Catholic neighbours. •When the Falls and the Orange marches today also go right back At the same time they exposed radical to its origins. Again in 1795 up to 7,000 Shankill fought together Protestant workers to accusations of be- Catholics were driven out of Armagh by ing ‘traitors’ for refusing to take part in Orange Order pogroms. But there was • Peace deal offers the events. Much of the imagery of one key difference with today, then many loyalism, the bonfires, the bunting and sectarian war or expelled Catholic families were sheltered the painted kerbstones provide an oppor- by Presbyterian United Irishmen in Bel- sectarian peace tunity to demand of every Protestant fast and later Antrim and Down, and the worker in a community ‘which side are • Neither Orange nor (mostly) Protestant leadership of the you on’. United Irishmen sent lawyers to pros- Green A PDF booklet from the Struggle site www.struggle.ws Right from the start the parades have described by William Reich of poor work- standing guard against communism”. been accompanied by violence as they ers/unemployed for fascism. Although Catholic workers have been and attempt to force their way through areas The Orange Order’s complex nature is continue to have a higher chance of be- where they are not wanted. The first pa- also shown by the events of 1881 when it ing unemployed than Protestant workers rades of 1796 saw one fatality, but in 1797 was possible for the Land league to hold for much of the North’s history, rates of 14 were killed during violence at an Or- a meeting in the local Orange hall at Protestant unemployment have still been ange parade in Stewartstown. In 1813 an Loughgall. Micheal Davitt told the crowd high. This gave the Orange order both a Orange parade through one of the first that the “landlords of Ireland are all of ‘carrot and stick’ to encourage Protestant areas of Belfast identified as ‘Catholic’ one religion - their God is mammon and workers to join. The Order was a place saw four more deaths. rack-rents, and evictions their only mo- where workers could meet employers, The town of Portadown has long been a rality, while the toilers of the fields, and formally or informally receive job of- hot bed of ‘contentious’ parades, banned whether Orangemen, Catholics, Presby- fers. On the other hand, particularly in marches took place there in 1825 and terians or Methodists are the victims”. rural areas, employers would be aware 1827. In 1835 the Portadown marches of who was a member and discriminate This danger of class unity saw the ruling claimed their first victim, Hugh Donnelly, in job applications against those who class and British conservatives rapidly a Catholic from Drumcree. Armagh Mag- were not. returning to the Order and the Grand istrate, William Hancock, (a Protestant), Orange Lodge of Ireland responded with Understanding the reactionary origins of said: a manifesto claiming that the Land the Orange Order is central is under- “For some time past the peaceable inhab- League was a conspiracy against prop- standing why the claims that the itants of the parish of Drumcree have been erty rights, Protestantism, civil and reli- marches represent ‘Protestant culture’ is insulted and outraged by large bodies of gious liberty and the British constitution. about on a par with claiming a Ku Klux Orangemen parading the highways, play- When the question was put this way the Klan march represents ‘white culture’. ing party tunes, firing shots, and using Orange Order fulfilled its role and went Indeed the very promotion of a separate the most opprobrious epithets they could on to provide the scab labour which at- ‘Protestant’ culture can only be seen as invent .... a body of Orangemen marched tempted to harvest Captain Boycott’s deeply reactionary in the context of the 6 through the town and proceeded to crops. counties. The term ‘Protestant’ culture is Drumcree church, passing by the Catho- never used to include the Protestant re- From this period on, with the growth of lic chapel though it was a considerable publicans of 1798 or 1934, for instance. the socialist movement, the Orange Or- distance out of their way.”[4] As such it’s real meaning can only be der’s warnings became extended to the ‘anti-Catholic’. In the relevant stability after the defeat idea of a conspiracy of “Popery”, “anar- of 1798 the British and local ruling class chy” and “communism”. These sort of Andrew Flood felt they no longer needed the Order and, warnings were repeated whenever peri- 1 The Defenders, p18, Deirdre Lindsay, in 1798; 200 as we have seen, went so far as to ban it ods of social radicalism saw Protestant years of resonance, Ed. Mary Cullen. and its marches. Its survival during these workers acting in their own interests as 2 The Tree of Liberty, Radicalism, Catholicism and years shows that the institution cannot it was precisely at these moments that the Construction of Irish Identity 1760 - 1830, Kevin simply be viewed as dependent on Brit- the danger of them linking up with Whelan, p119. ain or local Protestant rulers. It also fed Catholic workers threatened the unity of 3 Ibid., p120. off the historical legacy of sectarianism the Order. In 1932, when the Falls and 4 The figures for killing and quotes in this section and annually offered a chance for the ‘lit- Shankill rioted together against unem- come from the PFC report ‘For God and Ulster: an tle man’ to feel big. In this sense the psy- ployment, the Order warned “loyal sub- alternative guide to the Loyal Orders’ to be found on chological attraction of Orangism for poor jects of the King, the vital necessity of the internet at http://www.serve.com/pfc/loyal.html Protestants is similar to the attraction Loyalism and the Protestant working class (i.e. Catholics) lie down. Initially Protes- tant privilege had to do with getting the best land. More recently it has been about Time to stop beating the Orange Drum access to jobs, houses, and a sense of su- THERE IS NOTHING in Irish politics about which more rubbish is spoken periority.