Address by Mr Drew Nelson, Grand Secretary, Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, to Seanad Éireann

BACKGROUND

The Orange Order as it is commonly known derives its name from King William the Third, Prince of Orange. It views his victory at the Boyne and his achievements elsewhere as laying one of the cornerstones of civil and religious liberty - something that is still very relevant in the pluralist 21st Century.  It also helped to establish the foundations of modern constitutional democracy - again something worth cherishing and defending. While some may therefore view the annual celebrations of the battle of the Boyne by the Orange Order as anachronistic to a modern world, it is clear that the events there had significance beyond the shores of Ireland and in a way that is still relevant today. In the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution a number of Williamite and Boyne Societies developed spontaneously to maintain the principles so dearly fought for at that time.

However, while we want to remember 1690 we do not want to live in it.

Within Ireland our Institution was founded in September 1795 following a faction fight known as the Battle of the Diamond, which occurred near Loughgall in County Armagh.

Following that incident a Lodge system was adopted by many pre-existing Protestant and Orange Groups.

This system spread rapidly and within ten months 315 Orange Lodges had been formed.

My natural inclination at this point is to talk about the history of the Orange Order but it is much more important for me, on behalf of the Institution, to use this occasion as a spring-board for the future rather than a shackle to the past.

Having said that, we do carry an enormous burden of history, which I must address and try to explain.

First of all can I say that I believe the burden of history affects us all. I want to thank Micheál Martin, the Leader of Fianna Fáil for welcoming the invitation to us to address the Senate today but I note that he felt obliged to preface his welcome by stating “as a Republican Party we will always believe in and work towards a United Ireland”.  That preface is the burden of history in action.

Less than two years after the first Orange Lodge was formed General Lake, the Commanding General in the north of Ireland, reviewed Orange Parades on the Twelfth of July 1797 in Belfast and Lurgan.

He did so because he saw the Orange Order as an ally in the forthcoming 1798 Rebellion.  Orangemen were encouraged to join the yeomanry and Orange Lodges were formed within yeomanry companies.

Not for the last time the Orange Order was used by others to protect their own interests.

This has been a recurring theme of our organisation.

Over the next 50 years we were suppressed by various Acts of Parliament but throughout this period Orange Lodges continued to meet, sometimes openly, sometimes surreptitiously and sometimes in alternative guises such as Shooting Clubs or Brunswick Clubs.

The reason I am explaining this is to help you understand that the enduring strength of the Orange Order lies in its local roots.

We are a very decentralised organisation and although this poses great challenges at leadership level it is ultimately a great strength.

As the 19th Century progressed and Home Rule for Ireland came onto the agenda the Institution began to recover its strength.

Most Orange Halls were built between 1890 and 1910 – perhaps as many as 400 during that twenty year period. This meant that the Orange Institution owned more Halls than any Church or voluntary association.  These Halls became the centres of social activity in Protestant communities right across Ulster and further afield. The seeds, which had been planted during the previous one hundred years, now matured into a lasting religious, physical and social presence all across Protestant Ulster.  

I cannot over emphasise the importance of this network of halls.  Our present stock of 835 halls provides an important social focus for our people.

The building of all of these Halls of course would not have been possible without the co-operation of the Aristocracy who gave the sites.   Why did they do that?

In the late 19th Century the Establishment again saw the Institution as an ally to protect their interests in Ireland, this time against the threat of Home Rule.

I repeat:  not for the first or last time the Orange Order was used by others to protect their own interests.

As the Home Rule crisis developed the Orange Order and Political Unionism joined to form the Ulster Unionist Council and subsequently co-operated enthusiastically in   the organisation of the signing of Ulster’s Solemn League and Covenant and the formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force.

Exactly a century ago - on the 28th September 1912 -  471,414 Ulstermen and women signed the Ulster Covenant – a tremendous feat of organisation carried out in an atmosphere of unyielding religious determination.

In 1913 the Ulster Volunteer Force was formed. In 1914 it became the 36th Ulster Division of the Imperial Army and on the 1st July 1916 - the 226th Anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne - it was destroyed at the Somme.

We estimate that we may have lost as many as 10,000 members, including many from Canada, Australia and New Zealand, England and Scotland, in the First World War.

All of these events contributed to the formation of the state of Northern Ireland.

Because of its intimate involvement the Orange Institution felt that it had played the leading role in the creation of a new country.

For the next 50 years our role was very simple – to protect, uphold and maintain the state of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom.

After the fall of the Unionist Government in Northern Ireland in 1972 life suddenly became much more complicated for the Institution.

As terrorism increased the Establishment came calling yet again in their hour of need.  Army Colonels toured Orange halls begging members of the Institution to join the Ulster Defence Regiment.  Many thousands did and paid with their lives.
Because I want to emphasise my point, I am going to say again that not for the first or last time the Orange Order was used by others.

During the most recent terrorist campaign – and that is what we regard it as – 336 members of our Institution were murdered.  Over half of those members were serving in the security forces at the request of our Government.

Again I cannot over emphasise to you the effect these murders have had on our Institution and the attitudes of our members.

Between 1969 and 1989, that is the first 20 years of the terrorist campaign, eleven Orange Halls were burnt.

In the subsequent 22 years a further 323 Orange Halls have been burnt. These burnings continue and are, I believe, a direct result of the demonisation of the Orange Order by the Republican movement.

It is clear to us that in the late 1980s the Republican movement decided to directly attack the Orange Institution.  As well as burning these 334 Halls they also organised resistance to our parades.  

This resistance to parades continues to have a corrosive effect on community relations in Northern Ireland and, I believe, the potential to again explode onto the headlines.

It also deeply affects the attitude of our members.

As an Institution we call for accommodation and tolerance not segregation.

At this stage I want to mention one further matter, which has had a profound effect on the attitude and beliefs of our members, especially those living in the Republic.

In 1911 the size of the Roman Catholic minority in County Antrim was almost the same as the minority Protestant population in Counties Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan - just over 20%.

By 1961 however the minority population in County Antrim had grown by over 20% whilst the minority population in Counties Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan had fallen by almost 40%.

This of course begs the question as to which state looked after its minority better.
Many of our members from the minority Protestant community in the border counties of this state have spoken to me over the years of the communal uncertainty of their survival as a viable self-sustaining community.

Many have also spoken frankly of their fear and I am not just talking here about the fear of violence.

I am specifically referring to their fear of incurring the displeasure of the state in any way.

Again and again they have told me that their key to survival has been to keep their communal head down, not to rock the boat, not to bring attention to themselves.

Mister Speaker I make this point because it is important that the political establishment understands this issue.

I also want to say that over the past few years I have seen the Protestant communal fear in the border counties subside and I would like to pay tribute to Eamonn Ó Cuiv, then Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs who, I believe, was the first Government Minister to positively address those issues when he funded CADOLEMO in 2008 as a community development organisation working with the border Protestant Community.

That initiative has clearly and demonstrably built confidence within the border Protestant Community. For that we are very thankful.

But although things are improving Protestant communal uncertainty still exists and has been reinforced over the past few years because of the education cuts to Protestant Schools, which are having a severe effect amongst the scattered border Protestant Community.


So what does the Orange Order stand for today?

One of the reasons we are such an enduring organisation is that we continue to stand for the two key principles, which we have always stood for; namely, Faith and Fraternity.

We respect the right of everyone to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience – or not to worship at all. Nevertheless, we are a Protestant organisation and our membership is only open to those of the Protestant Reformed Faith.

We believe the essence of the Christian faith is summed up in the statement that “Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone” and all of this we believe is based on the Bible alone.

We value our Protestantism highly.

All of our meetings open and close with prayer and readings from the Bible.
The vast majority of our parades – over 90% - are Church Parades. All of our Twelfth of July demonstrations have a religious service as the central part of the day’s activities.

We have approximately 20 different Protestant denominations in membership.  Operating and organising in a community which places a high value on individual freedom of thought, conscience and responsibility means that in vast areas of Northern Ireland we are the only Protestant organisation which brings individual members of all of the diverse denominations together.  As a result of this we are often regarded as a strong unifying force within a very diverse Protestant community.

I personally believe that is why the Republican movement started to attack us directly in the late 1980s

Today we have approximately 1300 Orange Lodges meeting in 835 Orange Halls in eleven different counties – that is in the nine Ulster Counties, Leitrim and Dublin.

Approximately 6,000 groups meet in our halls.  Let us think about that number for a moment.  Perhaps as many as ten times as many groups meet in our Halls as meet in Council facilities such as community and sports centres.  

I hope that will help you to understand that we are a strong communal glue holding Protestant society together.

Our roots really do grow deep in Protestant society, particularly in rural Ulster.

Mr. Speaker most people here today will probably not be aware that there are actually eight Loyal Orders operating within the complex and diverse Protestant community.  We accommodate the vast majority of the Lodges, Chapters, Preceptories and Clubs from these eight Loyal Orders.  We also accommodate approximately 600 Bands in our Halls and, increasingly, a very large number of Community Organisations, which are not affiliated to the Institution – believed to be about 1500 at present.

We act in mutual support of our individual members and in their best interests.

This includes defending their religious, cultural, heritage and political interests. We have a strong charitable network, which seeks to help our widows, orphans and students. But we also raise tens of thousands of pounds every year for outside charities, which benefits all sections of the wider community.

We believe strongly that the interest of our members in Northern Ireland is best served by remaining part of the United Kingdom and we would welcome the Republic of Ireland re-joining the Commonwealth which we believe would bring the two communities in Ireland closer together without compromising the ideals of either community.

 

Why are we here today

The Loyal Orange Institution has two main motivations for accepting your offer to address the Senate today.

1.    Firstly, as an all Island organisation, we see today’s invitation as a formal recognition of our place in Irish Society.  For that we are very grateful.  We regard this as a very significant step, which will help to integrate our members in the Republic of Ireland into mainstream Irish Civic Society

2.    Secondly, as an organisation, we want to contribute to the normalisation of relationships within these islands.  We live in a world of change and whilst we are an organisation which places a high value on tradition we recognise that we also have to change.

Over the past seven years we have worked closely with Tourism Ireland to develop flagship Parades and Festivals on the 12th of July.  We hope these will contribute to attracting more tourists to both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Last autumn we were offered funding from the Special European Union Programmes Board for our cross-border Stripe Project.

This Project will contribute towards underpinning the peace process in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland by building community capacity and developing cross community engagement.  I would like to thank the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government which is the accountable Department in the Republic of Ireland for their support this project.

Currently, we are awaiting a final offer from the SEUPB to develop two museums and education resource centres, again with a view to engaging positively with the wider community.

We hope that this work will help to dispel the myths which are so damaging to relationships between our communities.

We also have other projects in mind such as a genealogical index for which we believe we would have perhaps as many as two hundred thousand names which we can connect to Orange Lodges. This link uncovers a tangible connection with ancestors, which we believe is a strong incentive for people to visit both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Challenges for the Orange Order

Mr. Speaker the future holds challenges for all of the individuals as well as the organisations represented here today.

The Loyal Orange Institution has many challenges ahead:

•  How do we share the Christian message contained in the Bible, enshrined in the great creeds of the Church, and the confessional statements of the Protestant churches in an increasingly militantly secular world?
• How should we play an appropriate part in civic society?
• How do we handle the long standing and vexed issue of contentious parades?
• How do we relate to our fellow citizens who are to a greater or lesser extent opposed to those parades?
• How do we protect protestant community rights of cultural expression?
• How do we engage with the Decade of Centenaries?
• How do we ensure equality and availability of access for funding for Protestant Cultural expression?

All of these challenges are live issues for us as an organisation.

We constantly seek to address them in a positive and appropriate way.

The first major anniversary in the Decade of Centenaries was the Balmoral Review in which we played a part with other members of the Unionist Centenary Committee.  That parade and event passed off entirely peacefully.  

We hope that this has set the standard for the rest of the decade.

Challenges for others

Mr. Speaker I also want to speak also about the challenges for others as we move forward together.

The Orange Institution wants to see a normalisation of relationships.

We believe that many of the relationships within these islands have been deeply skewed in the past by the burden of history about which I have already spoken.

The 1916 Proclamation of the Republic declares its resolve to cherish “all the children of the nation equally”.

I have to say frankly that our experience of Republicanism does not reflect that ideal.  Both historically and in the recent past the Protestant community have been on the receiving end of a sectarian campaign carried out in the name of Irish Republicanism.

But circumstances are always changing and three things in particular on this side of the border have, I believe, created a very positive climate which set a good foundation for working towards that normalisation of relationships, namely:

1.    The development of the visitors centre at the Boyne Battlefield site.

2.    The funding of CADOLEMO, our community development and capacity building organisation in the Republic, by the Irish Government.

3.    The Queen’s visit.


I believe that these three things were all done in the spirit of cherishing “all of the children of the nation equally”.

On behalf of our members who live in the Republic, I have to say, however, that there are still further challenges ahead.

The issue which gives rise to most concern for our members living in the Republic today is the funding cuts for Protestant schools.  It is not too strong to say that, in the border counties, the Protestant community actually fears for its continued survival as a viable, self-sustaining community.  I appeal to you today to take whatever steps are within your power to address that issue and reassure our members living in the border counties.

The next challenge is, I believe, much more difficult.  90% of the activities of our Institution take place in private but the activities which take place in public are very important to us.  We are known mainly for parading and that is an important part of what we do.  In the Republic we have about 20 parades each year.

For the reasons, which we all understand, these parades have been pushed to the margins of society.  There has not been an Orange Order parade in a major town in the Republic since before the troubles.  There was one planned in Dublin a few years ago but it was unable to proceed.   Our members in the Republic would welcome the opportunity to hold a parade in their capital city.  As an Institution we completely understand however the challenges which such a parade would pose.

Mr. Speaker this Institution and the Bands which we support are the guardians of part of the intangible cultural heritage of not only Northern Ireland but also the Republic of Ireland.  I believe that Ireland would be a poorer place if that cultural heritage disappeared.   Therefore my third challenge today is for the Government of the Republic of Ireland to ratify the 2003 Unesco Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.  I invite the Irish Government to consider this.


Moving forward together

In closing Mr. Speaker I would like to say that the Loyal Orange Institution wishes to move forward together with the Irish Government.

If I have dwelt overlong today on explaining the position of our organisation, what makes it tick, what has influenced the outlook of our members it is because I believe strongly that to move forward together it is important for you to understand our views.

I want to put on record that we are committed to working positively with the Government, Local Councils, all other Statutory Agencies and appropriate non-governmental bodies to represent the concerns of our members.

The Grand Master, the Deputy Grand Master and our four County Grand Masters in the Republic of Ireland are all present here today to show their support for that commitment.

Mr. Speaker together let us resolve that no longer will the burden of history stand in the way of normalisation of relationships.

Thank you.


Drew Nelson, LL.B
Grand Secretary
Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland