History of The Orange Institution - Role in The Partition of Ireland

Role in The Partition of Ireland

In 1912, the Third Home Rule Bill was passed in the British House of Commons (though it was held up by the House of Lords for two further years). The Orange Order, along with Irish Unionists and the British Conservative Party, were forthright in opposing the Bill. The Order organised the 1912 Ulster Covenant a pledge to oppose Home Rule that was signed by up to 500,000 people.

In addition, in 1911 some Orangemen in County Tyrone had begun to arm themselves and engage in military training with the intention of resisting Home Rule. To facilitate this, several Justices of the Peace revived an old law permitting the formation of militias "for the purpose of maintaining the constitution of the United Kingdom as now established." This practice spread to other Orange lodges under the name Ulster Volunteers, and in 1913 the Ulster Unionist Council decided to bring these groups under central control, creating the Ulster Volunteer Force, a militia dedicated to resisting Home Rule. There was a strong overlap between Orange Lodges and UVF units. A large shipment of rifles was imported from Germany to arm them in April 1914 in what became known as the Larne Gun Running. Civil war looked likely to break out between the Ulster Volunteers and the nationalist Irish Volunteers. However, the crisis was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 and the temporary suspension of the Home Rule Act placed on the statute books with Royal Assent. Many Orangemen served in the war with the 36th (Ulster) Division suffering heavy losses and commemorations of their sacrifice are still an important element of Orange ceremonies.

After the war, the island of Ireland became embroiled in the Irish War of Independence (1919–1921), which pitted the Irish Republican Army (the I.R.A.) against British Crown forces. The Orange Order appealed for Protestant unity in this period, condemning militant labour action such as strike for a 40 hour week in Belfast in 1919. In addition, some members of the Order were involved in paramilitary activities against nationalists. The leader of the Ulster Volunteer Force, Colonel Wilfrid Spender, wrote to Sir James Craig, 1st Bt., in 1920, "Some of the Orange Lodges have decided that the UVF is too slow and have decided to raise a special force of their own." Many Orangemen were subsequently recruited into the Ulster Special Constabulary, an Auxiliary, mostly Protestant police force. Many of them were allegedly involved in attacks on Catholics, in which over 350 people were killed in the period 1920-1922.

The Fourth Home Rule Act was passed as the Government of Ireland Act 1920, the north eastern part of Ulster being partitioned from Southern Ireland as Northern Ireland. This new self-governing entity within the United Kingdom was confirmed under the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921. Southern Ireland became the Irish Free State in December 1922, then, in December 1937, it became Éire. This independent Irish state has been popularly known (in English) as the Republic of Ireland since it left the Commonwealth in April 1949.