The Twelfth - Origins

Origins

Orangemen commemorated several events from the 17th century onwards, celebrating the survival and triumph of their community during the Irish Rebellion of 1641 and the Williamite-Jacobite War (1689–91). The first such commemoration was the anniversary of the 1641 rebellion on 23 October, an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland. The second major day was the birthday of William of Orange, Protestant victor of the Williamite war in the 1690s on 4 November. Both of these anniversaries faded in popularity by the end of the 18th century.

The Twelfth itself originated as a celebration of the Battle of Aughrim, which took place on 12 July 1691 in the Julian calendar. Aughrim was the decisive battle of the Williamite war, in which the predominantly Irish Catholic Jacobite army was destroyed and the remainder capitulated at Limerick. The Twelfth in the early 18th century was a popular commemoration of this battle, featuring bonfires and parades. The Battle of the Boyne (fought on 1 July 1690) was commemorated with smaller parades on 1 July. However, the two events were combined in the late 18th century. The first reason for this was the British switch to the Gregorian calendar in 1752, which re-positioned the Battle of the Boyne to 11 July in the new calendar, the eve of the Battle of Aughrim, on 12 July in the old calendar. The second reason was the foundation of the Orange Order in 1795. The Order preferred the Boyne, due to William of Orange's presence there. It has also been suggested that in the 1790s (a time of Roman Catholic resurgence) the Boyne, where the Jacobites were routed, was more appealing to the Order than Aughrim, where they had fought hard and died in great numbers.

The final decade of the eighteenth century was a time of political ferment in Ireland, as elsewhere in Europe, not least because of the radical republican ideals of the French Revolution. In Ireland these ideas were mixed with deeper rooted sectarian feelings and bands of Defenders and Ribbon Boys were formed on the Catholic side as well as the Orange Order on the Protestant side. Both sets of religiously motivated militant groupings were larger than the non-sectarian, republican, United Irishmen which at the time enjoyed support from prominent radical Presbyterians (who were excluded from society in much the same way as Catholics) in Ulster.

The Order's first ever marches took place on 12 July 1796 in Portadown, Lurgan and Waringstown. The Twelfth parades of the early 19th century often led to public disorder, so much so that the Orange Order and The Twelfth were banned in the 1830s and 40s (see below).

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