The Orange Order

Please note: This paper was first written around 2001-2003 and therfore set against the awful background of  the Northern Ireland troubles when thousands of British troops were on daily duty throughout the province. The latter part of the paper brings the reader up to date with recent events as peace finally emerged after decades of horrific violence.

Indeed any challenge to the Order's enormous grip on the country is immediately viewed as religious persecution and produces a strong religious / martyr backlash.  

Men who would not publicly defend the church will publicly defend the order with a most aggressive zeal. 

It is important to gain an understanding of the blood stained soil that the Orange Order has grown out of.  There are many excellent books on Ireland's history and the following potted history is mostly an amalgam of short extracts taken from a variety of publications dealing specifically with Ireland's history. The additional spiritual observations are in red.

Understanding the historical background

The World Book Multimedia Encyclopaedia writes.. The Orange Order is a Protestant organization in Northern Ireland. It has long sought to keep Protestants in power in the country and to maintain Northern Ireland's union with Britain. The Orange Order was founded in 1795 by Anglican Protestant farmers in County Armagh, Ireland. It grew out of a conflict between Protestant and Roman Catholic farmers who were bidding to become tenants on the same farmlands. The Protestant farmers joined together to drive Catholic families out of the region.

The organization was named for William of Orange. William was the Protestant leader of the Netherlands who, in 1689, overthrew James II, the Catholic king of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

The Orange Order of Northern Ireland is organized into units called lodges. It has about 1,500 lodges and about 100,000 members. The members, called Orangemen, parade through Protestant and Catholic neighbourhoods during the "marching season" of July. They sing and carry banners to celebrate past Protestant victories over Catholics.

PLANTATION OF PROTESTANTS: The Plantation was the settlement of land that had been previously seized, by people who would be loyal to the English Crown. The persons who received land were called "Undertakers" because they had to undertake certain conditions, including building a house and "bawn" - a fortified barn, and to settle the land with a minimum number of people of the Protestant faith who could become militia in time of troubles. The main Plantation period was from 1610 to about 1630.

This invasion was a mixture from nobility who sought estates to men who were seeking to escape justice. The Revd. Andrew Stewart of Donaghadee claimed that,,

'from Scotland came many, and from England not a few, yet all of them generally the scum of both nations, who for debt or breaking and fleeing from justice, or seeking shelter, came thither'

Indeed one family, the Johnstons, faced seventy seven charges of slaughter in 1609.

However going back less than a century, it was during the reign of Henry VIII the forces which would later lead to the near total destruction of Celtic culture first appeared.  Henry managed to get himself proclaimed King of Ireland in 1541 by threatening to use military force and by employing his considerable powers of persuasion, but he never really secured the English claims to the Irish throne. 

Then when Henry broke with the Catholic Church, he instigated the Protestant Reformation which would eventually set the deeply Catholic Irish on a collision course with the zealously Protestant English. It was during the long reign of his daughter Elizabeth that this conflict first came to a head.

English settlements 1534 - 1609  'The Geography and Practice of English Colonisation in Ireland 1534- 1609'

When Elizabeth became Queen in 1558 England's control over Ireland was at low ebb.  Just the year before, the first in a long series of rebellions against English rule had broken out in Ulster. Although not successful, this rebellion confirmed for Elizabeth that more stringent measures would have to be taken to stabilize English domination once and for all.  First she imposed the Anglican faith upon the hostile Catholic populace. and then she began steadily expanding the previously unsuccessful plantation system.  Seeing their days numbered by forces destined to completely erode their power, the Irish rose up once more in the 1590's but after nine years of battle, the English prevailed and the Irish leaders fled to the Continent. This event became known as the 'flight of the earls'

After the flight of the earls, the government confiscated their lands and decided to plant six counties of Ulster-Armagh, Cavan, Derry, Donegal, Fermanagh, and Tyrone-with new settlers.

Estates were granted to three kinds of people: English and Scottish settlers, who were not allowed to have Irish tenants; Servitors (men who had served in the English army in Ireland), who might take both British and Irish tenants; and Irishmen, who could have Irish tenants. Rents were low, but settlers were expected to build fortified houses. At the same time, two more counties of Ulster, Antrim and Down, were settled, mainly by people from Scotland. The Ulster settlement was the most successful of all the Irish plantations. Its success helped to give the area the Protestant character it has today.

In the years that followed, the government made other settlements in Ireland. In Carlow, King's County, Leitrim, Longford, and Wexford. Even Old English nobles (descendants of Norman settlers) lost their lands. As a result of these plantations, bitter feelings were aroused, and Roman Catholic landowners became alarmed. None of them felt secure in their lands.

Religion was another cause of discontent. Roman Catholics had enjoyed a certain degree of religious freedom under King James I and King Charles I. But they feared that the Puritans, who were coming to power in England, would persecute them.  In 1641, the Irish rebelled, and for 10 years war raged throughout the country. The Irish Catholics fought for independence. The Old English joined them, but all through the war they declared that they were loyal to the king and were fighting only for religious freedom. The Protestants were also divided into two groups: those who supported the king and those who supported Parliament.

In 1642, the leaders of the rebellion formed the Confederation of Kilkenny and appointed Owen Roe O'Neill and Thomas Preston as generals. O'Neill won a great victory at Benburb, in County Tyrone, in 1646. But O'Neill died three years later, just before Oliver Cromwell landed in Dublin with a large army.

Cromwell marched north against Drogheda, took the town, and massacred its people. His ruthlessness struck fear into Irish hearts, and many of the southern and eastern towns surrendered without a struggle. When Cromwell returned to England in 1650, the war was almost over, but the Irish army did not surrender for another two years. After the war, Ireland was in a wretched condition. Its population was halved. Most of its leaders were either dead or living in exile, and about 30,000 of its armed men had left to join the armies of France or Spain.

The English government then undertook what it hoped would be the final settlement of Ireland. Irish landowners were ordered to move west of the River Shannon to the province of Connacht before May 1, 1652, on pain of death. 

The provinces of Ulster, Leinster, and Munster were divided among Cromwellian soldiers and adventurers (Englishmen who had subscribed money to pay for Cromwell's campaign in Ireland). Only the Irish landowners were transplanted. The poor people were allowed to remain as tenants, trades people, and labourers.

Cromwellian settlement was not a complete success. Many of the settlers sold their farms and returned home. Others married into Irish families, and their descendants lost their English characteristics. But the settlement did succeed in creating a new landlord class. Before 1641, Roman Catholics owned about three-fifths of the land. By the 1680's, they owned one-fifth of it.

When James I succeeded Elizabeth, he resumed the plantation of English and Scottish settlers with a vengeance, especially in that part of Ireland which had been the centre of the uprising: Ulster. 

By 1622, more than 13,000 Protestants lived in Ulster. 

By 1641 their population was over 100,000. 

Within 30 years of the arrival of James' first settlers, only slightly more than 10 per cent of Ulster still belonged to the Catholic native Irish. In a generation the social structure of Ulster had been re-engineered in a fashion that would have painful consequences for both the newly installed, privileged Protestant majority and the disenfranchised, soon to be impoverished Catholic minority.

The 'reformed faith' came in to Ulster by might and by power. Not by God's Spirit. Napoleon said rightly, "What I take by the sword I must keep by the sword" And so it was. And so it is. And unless there is repentance for the iniquity of our forefathers, so it will be. (e.g. 2 Chron. 7:14   Neh. 1:6-7,  Lev. 26:40)

The Irish Catholic populace had lost their land to the incoming Protestant planters. These planters had been encouraged at times with Biblical rhetoric portraying them as the 'children of Israel', Ulster as the 'promised land' and of course by inference, the native Irish were the unspeakable Canaanites.  

"Let us therefore, use the persuasions which Moses used to Israel..and tell them (future settlers in east Ulster) that they shall goe to possesse a lande that floweth with milke and hony, a fertile soile truly if there be any in Europe.." Thomas Brett 1572

Both sides inflicted many terrible massacres upon the other, but while the Irish saw it as trying to get their land back..

"You see my Lord, all those goodly landes..were once my ancestors, and I meane to have them agayne; for now the time is come that we shall be righted of the wronges hereto fore dun unto us" - Phelim MacGillapatrick, chief of the MacGillapatricks in Upper Ossory c.1598

...the invading English often saw themselves (like the Crusaders - "We shall slay for God's love") as being the righteous judgement of God upon the heathen. For instance in 1649 when Oliver Cromwell came to Ireland to deal with the Catholic rebellion, his soldiers captured the garrison town of Drogheda and then went wild and massacred nearly 3,000 people. Cromwell wrote "In the heat of the actions I commanded my soldiers to kill everyone in the town. I think that night they killed about 2,000 men. Some Catholics took refuge in other parts of the town from where they killed some of our men. When they surrendered the officers were knocked on the head, the ordinary soldiers were lined up - one in every ten was executed, and the other nine shipped off to the Barbados. I believe it was a righteous judgement of God upon these barbarous wretches who have soaked their hands in so much innocent blood, and that it will prevent the shedding of blood in the future"

This territorial expansion by might and power was much more palatable when it was given religious purposes.. 

This was not how Jesus commissioned His disciples to bring in the Kingdom of God. This is the way of the Crusades and the way of Islam.   It is the complete anathema to His ways. If the bringing in of the Kingdom of God had been the real intent then England would have sent in missionaries. But it was a land grab and hold, and a people conquer scheme, and so Protestant planters loyal to the English Throne were sent in. 

On October 23rd 1641 a series of uprisings in Ulster spread panic among the Protestant settlers. Those who were not killed by the rebels fled for safety into the defended towns, where plague and starvation soon took their toll. Modern historians suggest that the first accounts of the rebellion exaggerated the number of deaths (100,000) and the extent of the atrocities committed by the native Irish. Wherever the truth lies, the rebellion created in Protestant minds a distrust of their Catholic neighbours which has survived to modern times.

THE BATTLE OF THE BOYNE: No date in Irish history is better known than 1690. No Irish battle is more famous than William 3rd's victory over James 2nd at the River Boyne.

These were the days when - despite the clear words of Jesus that 'My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight..' (John 18:36) - religious affiliation was linked to physical territory. Kings and Popes made alliances and invaded or defended lands for a diverse number of reasons, and religious affiliation was in the mix. Because that was the 'spirit' behind the following events, and because William 3rd is still idolised by so many, the same spirit remains at work in Northern Ireland.  Jesus was after the territory of men's hearts both then and now, and it was and still is, the Sword of the Spirit not the sword of steel that takes and holds this precious territory.

James, a Roman Catholic, had lost the throne of England in the bloodless 'Glorious Revolution' of 1688.William was Prince of Orange, a Dutch speaking Protestant married to James's daughter Mary, and he became King at the request of parliament. James sought refuge with his old Catholic ally Louis XIV of France, who saw the opportunity to strike at William through Ireland. He provided French officers and arms for James, who landed at Kinsale in March 1689. The Lord Deputy, the Earl of Tyrconnell, was a Catholic loyal to James, and his army controlled most of the island.  James quickly summoned a parliament, largely Catholic, which proceeded to repeal the legislation under which Protestant settlers had acquired the land.

William could not ignore the threat in Ireland. In August 1689 Marshal Schomberg landed at Bangor with 20,000 troops, and with Ulster secure pushed south as far as Dundalk.

William landed in Carrickfergus of June 14th 1690 and was able to muster 36,000 men which included Danish mercenaries as well as English and Dutch regiments.  He began his march towards Dublin. There was some resistance near Newry, but the Jacobites soon withdrew to the south bank of the River Boyne. The battle was fought on July 1st 1690 at a fordable river bend four miles west of Drogheda. William's army was stronger by around 10,000 men. By mid afternoon the Jacobite army was in retreat, outpaced by James himself, who rode to Dublin to warn of William's approach. He was in France before the month was out. On July 6th William entered Dublin where he gave thanks for victory in Christ Church Cathedral.

Click here to read a diary account from a minister who was at the battle

Jesus said "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself." Christians have no permission to lift up any other name before people, especially using terms such as 'glorious and immortal memory' or 'that great deliverer of the faith'*

In 1691, on October 3rd, William of Orange's commanders signed a treaty with the Irish commanders guaranteeing 52 articles. The treaty was confirmed by William and Mary who pledged the 'honour of England' that it should be kept inviolably. Included in these articles were guarantees to the Catholics that..

* the free exercise of their religion 

* the privileges of sitting in Parliament 

* freedom of trade 

* the safety of the estates of those who had taken up arms for king James 

* a general amnesty 

* all the honours of war to the troops and a free choice for their future destination.

In 1695 Lord Capel was appointed Viceroy. He at once summoned a Parliament which sat for several sessions, and in which some of the penal laws against Catholics were enacted. A selection of these were..

* All Catholics were denied the right to vote and it excluded them from all offices of trust, and indeed from all remunerative employment, however insignificant.

* They were fined £60 a month for being absent from the Protestant form of worship.

* They were forbidden to travel more than five miles from their homes.

* Any four Justices of the Peace could without further trial banish a man for life for refusing to attend the Protestant form of worship.

* No Catholic could employ a Catholic schoolmaster to educate his children and if he sent them abroad for their education he could be fined £100, and the child could not inherit property in England or Ireland.

* Any Catholic priest who came to the country could be hanged.

* Any Protestant suspecting another Protestant of holding property in trust for a Catholic might file a bill against the suspect and take the property from him.

* Any Protestant seeing a Catholic tenant at work on a farm which in his opinion yielded one third more than the annual rent might enter on that farm and by simply swearing to the fact, take possession of that farm.

*Any Protestant might take away the horse of a Catholic, no matter how valuable simply by paying him £5.

* Horses and wagons belonging to Catholics were in all cases to be seized for use by the militia.

* Any Catholic gentleman's child who became a Protestant could at once take possession of his father's property.

* In 1771 grace was granted to the Catholics by which they were allowed to take a lease of 50 acres of bog, and half an acre of arable land for a house, but this holding must not be within a mile of any town.

Interestingly, even after several centuries little has changed, and today's equivalent on the Irish Nationalist (Roman Catholic) side are the IRA and the ILNA, and on the Ulster Loyalist (Protestant) side the UDA, UVF, UFF, LVF

Colonel Wallace was one of the Orange Orders most esteemed leaders and today is still held in the highest of honour.

As a young man he joined Eldon Orange Lodge and in 1903 succeeded Colonel Edward Saunderson as County Grand Master of Belfast. 

He held this position till 1921, during which time he was Grand Secretary of the Grand Orange Lodge (1903 -1910) and Grand President of the Grand Orange Council of the World (1909 - 1912)

During the Home Rule crisis he played an active part in the Ulster Volunteer Force.

This Cathedral claims the grave place of St.Patrick in its grounds. It's spiritual  significance cannot be underestimated.

There is a single window for St.Patrick at the rear of the Cathedral and this pride of place for Hiram Abiff and 33rd degree Freemasonry towering over the pulpit.

A greater defiling of the church would be hard to imagine (Ezekiel 8 : 16)

Note:

The single ritual described below is referred to as 'riding the goat'. This is derived from the degree password 'GOAT' which are the first letters of 'The Ark Of God' reversed. Interestingly it is satanism which delights in reversing the things of God such as the Lord's prayer, the Cross, etc. and the goat itself is a symbol of baphomet - linked to the higher degrees of Freemasonry, as well as satanism of course.

The 'joke' of telling nervous candidates that they are about to ride the goat is taken straight from Freemasonry. ( pages 86,87  'Masonry. Beyond the Light' by Wm. Schnoebelen)

Ungodly cultural and family traditions are a very powerful tool in satan's hands. Do men in this brotherhood put the traditions of their fathers ahead of the clear commands of God?

'Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: "This people honours Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men". ... 'All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition"  Mark 7:6