History of The Orange Institution - Early Years

Early Years

Much of the Order's early activities involved opposition to the Society of United Irishmen, a revolutionary organisation set up to abolish sectarian distinctions and to create an independent Irish republic. It was composed of Anglicans, Dissenters (i.e., non-Anglican Protestants, mainly Presbyterian), and Roman Catholics. The United Irishmen were violently opposed by the Orange Order.

The Governor of Armagh, Lord Gosford, gave his opinion of the late 18th century disturbances to a meeting of magistrates: "It is no secret that a persecution is now raging in this country... the only crime is... profession of the Roman Catholic faith. Lawless banditti have constituted themselves judges..." According to Col. R.H. Wallace, whoever the Governor believed were the “lawless banditti” they could not have been Orangemen as there were no lodges in existence at the time of his speech. Against the background of the seditious activity of the United Irishmen, the government backed the Orange Order from 1796. Thomas Knox, British military commander in Ulster, wrote in August 1796, "We must to a certain degree uphold them, for with all their licentiousness, on them we must rely for the preservation of our lives and properties should critical times occur."

The Order spread rapidly in mid-Ulster and many Orangemen found their way into the government militia and Yeomanry. For their part, the United Irishmen exacerbated Catholic fear of the Order by spreading fabricated rumours of an "Orange extermination oath" to massacre all Catholics. Nevertheless, Protestant factions did expel up to 7000 Catholics from their homes in this period and by 1797, Henry Joy McCracken, the United Irish leader, was receiving word of the "barbarities committed on the country people in Moneymore, County Londonderry, by the Yeomen and Orangemen."

Orange historians state that the first Orangemen did not sympathise with the Peep of Day Boys or "wreckers" (of Catholic homes and churches) and never allowed them to join the Orange Institution. Others have stated that some Peep of Day Boys might have “slipped through the net” but if so they found themselves in a vastly different organisation.

Many Orangemen fought on the government side in the subsequent Irish Rebellion of 1798. Moreover, there were accusations that the Institution was involved in reprisal attacks after the rebellion, in which over 60 Catholic churches were burned. However Orange historians would point out that in County Antrim Orangemen were among the first to contribute money to a repair fund for a Catholic chapel damaged in the violence. Anti-Catholic actions were fueled by rebel atrocities against Protestants, such as the Scullabogue Barn massacre. In the wake of the rebellion, once its usefulness had passed, the Orange Order was once again seen by the authorities primarily as a threat to public order.

By the early 19th century, the Order had spread outside of Ireland, reaching England in 1807. In some areas, particularly around Liverpool, it was used by the Tories against the Liberals. The Order also spread to the United States, and Tim Pat Coogan argues that it “manifested itself” in movements as the Know Nothings and the Ku Klux Klan, and also proved useful to employers as a device for keeping Protestant and Catholic workers from "uniting for better wages and conditions."