History of The Orange Institution - Foundation of The Order

Foundation of The Order

Under the influence of the United Irishmen according to T. A. Jackson, political unity was replacing sectarian divisions in Ulster. This he says inspired "public-spirited zeal" in Catholic areas with areas like Armagh were the population had been evenly devivided and the scene of sporadic violence between the Peep O'Day Boys and Catholic Defenders for years dying down to nothing under the influence of the United Irish. However with the arrival of the new pro-Catholic Viceroy, Earl Fitzwilliam the Peep of Day boys resumed their activity after nearly a two year absence. Jackson suggests that it is impossible to miss the connection between this fact, and the lie propagated by the Clare-Beresford faction that Fitzwilliam was there to replace the Protestant ascendancy with a Catholic one. With Defenders, again in action, he says, every successful defence against Peep of Day attack being then portrayed as a "Catholic outrage." This "artificially worked-up pogrom" would culminate in what came to be known as the Battle of the Diamond. In the aftermath of the "battle" which occurred on the 21 September 1795 the Orange Society was founded, with the first Orange lodge established in Dyan, County Tyrone. Its first grand master was James Sloan of Loughgall, in who’s inn the victory by the Peep O’Day Boys was celebrated.

According to Robert Kee, the Peep O'Day Boys would reorganise under the name the Orange Society, which he described as a crude organisation at the time. However, Ruth Dudley-Edwards has stated that, "The traditional belief that Peep O' Day Boys founded the Orange Order ... does not bear scrutiny." Dudley-Edwards, Mervyn Jess and Colonel Robert Hugh Wallace, a former Grand Master of the Belfast Orangemen, have suggested that the Orange Boys and the Volunteers seem to have been the true forerunners of the Orange Institution. Wallace states the Peep O' Day Boys were never a properly organised group and moreover continued to operate of their own accord after the formation of the Orange Institution.

James Wilson was joined by Daniel Winter and James Sloan. The infant Orange Order according to Wallace, had both Presbyterian and Anglican members. The colour orange had long been a popular symbol with which to celebrate the victory of William of Orange over James II a century before. The Orange Order proper was founded in Loughgall in County Armagh September 21, 1795 in the aftermath of this Battle of the Diamond.

Many of the Orange Order's terms and language are derived from Freemasonry (e.g. lodge, grand master, and degrees.) The two movements have since grown apart; today the highest bodies in Freemasonry specifically deny any connection between the two institutions.