The lost Orange of Ireland

Royal Black Preceptory Parade, Cootehill, Cavan, 1920

In a previous post I noted that Martin McGuinness said in March 2015 that "The orange part of the flag is as important as the green", and Gerry Adams said at his party’s Ard Fheis that same year that "We need reminded again and again that our flag is Orange."

Adams said during his 2016 Ard Fheis speech:

"A United Ireland means the unity of the people of this island, including those who identify themselves as British... But it is the people – orange, green, and all other colours also, who are at the core of our values of equality, liberty and fraternity."

Adams said in April 2015:

"The message of the Proclamation, the symbolism of our national flag and the challenge for republicans today is to unite Orange and Green in equality and mutual respect. I would appeal directly to working class unionists and loyalists to examine the economic and social price now being paid for the union. Austerity policies imposed by an Eton-educated English elite is no more in the interests of people of the Shankill Road than it is for residents of the Bogside."

Roy Foster wrote in the FT:

"Gerry Adams said [in 2004] that in is ideal of a 32-county republic, Orange marches would be allowed as part of the Protestant heritage."

Gerry Adams said in a speech to the British-Irish Inter-parliamentary Assembly in Swansea, Wales (2009):

"Orange marches will have their place, in a new Ireland albeit on the basis of respect and cooperation."

Adams said in September 2015:

"Orange is one of our national colours. There will be Orange parades in a united Ireland. I would appeal directly today to the Orange Order to also begin playing its part in the Peace Process by following the example set by Queen Elizabeth."

Jack Lynch, gave a speech on RTE on July 11 1970, the following was the ending of an early draft but did not make the final edit:

"Let the Orangemen parade of they must. Do not interfere with them. Old moulds are broken. The future is for us all."

Liam Clarke wrote:

"Orangeism has been in retreat in the south since the foundation of the state. In the 1920s, most of the southern counties had Orange lodges. The headquarters was in the Fowler hall, Dublin, until it was seized by anti-Treaty forces during the civil war. Nowadays the only Orange parade in the republic is at Rossnowlagh, Co Donegal." 

Brian M. Walker explained that Orange Order parades ended in Monaghan and Cavan in 1931 after interference by armed republicans:

"Following partition, Orange demonstrations continued to be held in counties Donegal, Monaghan and Cavan. At an Orange parade in Clones, Co. Monaghan, in July 1923, a spokesman declared that ‘they did not desire to be placed under their present regime, but they paid tribute to whom tribute was due’. The year 1931, however, was the last time that Orange demonstrations took place in counties Monaghan and Cavan. A month after Twelfth of July celebrations in 1931 a large body of republicans, including IRA units, occupied Cootehill, Co. Monaghan, on the eve of a planned demonstration by members of the Royal Black Institution, a sister organisation to the Orange Order. The state authorities reacted strongly, dispatching troops and extra police to Cootehill to restore law and order. Although the demonstration did not proceed, the government gave assurances to local Orange and Black leaders that their parades would be protected in future. The following year, however, de Valera and a Fianna Fáil government were in power and such assurances were no longer forthcoming. The minutes of the County Monaghan Grand Lodge show that in June 1932 members received information that armed interference by local republicans was planned against their proposed county demonstration, and consequently all parades that year were cancelled in the border counties, except at Pettigo, Co. Donegal.Thereafter, lodges in counties Monaghan and Cavan held small-scale parades to churches and private meetings but were not able to hold major demonstrations in their own counties, for fear of the consequences."

Kevin Myers wrote in the Irish Independent, November 2012:

"After independence, public gatherings of avowed unionists would become impossible in the 26 counties – first by the veto of the mob, and in time, by the veto of the Fianna Fail government, which used the Public Order Act to ban public displays of an identity with which it disapproved."

Quincey Dougan said:

"When the Civil War between pro-treaty and anti-treat elements of the IRA erupted in 1921, the Orange Order was forced out of Fowler Hall. Anti-treaty IRA seized the building at first ironically using it as a refugee centre from ‘the North’ and later as their headquarters, in the process destroying many important documents relating to the Dublin Order Order. This was to signal a de-facto Orange exodus from the City, with the last Orange procession in 1938 attacked as they made their way to board trains to Northern Ireland 12th demonstrations."