Marching has a long and and largely dishonourable history in the north of Ireland. In the final decade of the eighteenth century, there were important parades held in Belfast in July; but it wasn’t the Battle of the Boyne they were celebrating, it was the taking of the Bastille in Paris in 1789.
This fruitful union of Presbyterianism and republicanism withered and died with the coming of the nineteenth century. Irish nationalism lost the link with Presbyterians and thanks in no small measure to Daniel O’Connell, became linked with Catholicism. O’Connell himself caused a riot when he visited Belfast in 1841, in his drive to repeal the Act of Union.
Orange parades got into their stride in the early 1800s. Orangemen rioted in 1829 when their parades were banned by the British government. They repeated this pattern of disorder with riots in 1843, 1857, 1864 and 1872. Worst of all was 1886, when around fifty peole lost their lives.
The possibility of a Home Rule Bill resulted in more riots in 1893. In 1912 the disorder continued, with Winston Churchill coming close to being lynched by a loyalist mob. In 1920, around 7,000 Catholic workers were expelled from their jobs. In July 1921 sixteen people were killed. In 1935 on the Twelfth, 2,000 people were forced from their homes and several killed.
So let’s summarize: 1843, 1857, 1864, 1872, 1886 , 1893, 1912, 1920, 1921, 1935. And that, significantly, doesn’t include the many disturbances from 1969-on.
We can draw one of two conclusions:
- Orange marches and the Twelfth draw violence as surely as bluebottles to a cowpat, or
- it is purely coincidental that these eruptions of violence over a couple of centuries occurred around the Twelfth.
My money is on the first. History must have taught all but the most obtuse of Orange Order members that their parades ignite violence again and again and again. If the Good Friday Agreement was Sunningdale for slow learners, the Twelfth is the day honoured by those incapable of learning anything, even when given two or more centuries to put two and two together.
Footnote: if this blog has a resentful tone today, that’s because the Orange Order have been disrupting my birthday celebrations for over seventy years now. Thanks, guys
I wrote my dissertation on the subject Jude, riots in Derry and Belfast from 1857-86. Safe to say the evidence in almost all cases pointed to heightened tensions around the 12th. But hey, breithle shona duit mo chara!
Go raibh maith agat, Ciarán…
Isn’t it amazing, as someone said on this blog, how the law of the statelet can be suspended for at least a day while gurriers can destroy property and peoples lives. One of the other Nazis said when he hears the word culture he reaches for his pistol. The simple answer is that this pathetic little ‘state’ is afraid and powerless to rein in the Frankenstein sectarian monster it created to establish the state. Look at the new year’s celebration in London. The authorities there could stop that overnight if they wished but the Cosa Nostra can’t or won’t do anything. Animals!
The moral of the story is simple.
Braindead Orangeman thinks ‘culture’ means stamping on the head of his equally dispossessed neighbour.
So he builds a bonfire to celebrate his hatred – and it burns his house down.
But braindead Orangeman is not annoyed.
Because he would rather have a ‘Union Jack’ tablecloth than a loaf of bread on his table.
And that’s the six county ‘Orange mindset’ in a nutshell.
Again, Happy birthday Jude, however, I would like to know why Mary Mc Aleese, when President invited & entertained the OO. Surely she must have been aware of their history or was she asking the rest of us to “respect their culture”.
Thanks Bridget. AS to President MCA and the OO – Pass…
That’d be the same Mary McAleese,- ‘from humble beginnings in Ardoyne to bestriding the world stage as the President of Ireland’ –
Who doesn’t have to watch scum ‘bestriding’ past Ardoyne anymore.
Because she became a cheerleader for the ‘soft republican’ establishment.
And with the help of her husband – became a ‘betrayer’ and a delusional advocate for a UDA Brigadier and all things culturally Orange.
That’s why Bridget.
That’s why they still don’t want a ‘taig’ about the place.
Because of ‘our own’.
I wonder TR if she goes to the parades in the north & if not, why not, after all she has shown unprecedented support for them in the past…………..wow, wow……….
Bridget,
Many outstretched Nationalist hands have been ‘spat’ upon, whilst pseudo- republicans, feather their pension nests with British pound notes, and fawning servitude to Mrs Saxe Coburg Gotha.
My lunch comes up, every time I see a ’12th of July Shinner’ mouth ‘acrobatic platitudes’, as a humble genuflection to their Orange masters’ diktats.
Many Happy Returns Jude. My son also has his birthday today .Downside is he never gets Birthday Cards through the post on same day.
I know how he feels, angela. Hooray for electronics. Grma and breithlá sona leis…
Brigid and Jude, when ordinary people like you and I can’t understand events like the one you refer to Brigid, it surely indicates that something untoward is going on. Mc Aleese, like the rest of the southern West Brits do a great job of doffing their caps to the OO and others, (DUP etc). Ireland is lost, terribly lost. We’ve a long, long struggle ahead of us in order to get back to an Ireland we can all be proud of.
Breithlá shona duit, jude. Mar a dúirt Liam MacCarráin “Tá muid,uilig, ag dul síos an taobh eile den chnoic”.
Grma, Fiosrach
Go Maire Tú.
An Taoiseach is engaged with matters fiscal in Berlin. An Taoiseach’s visit to Berlin will be followed by a visit to Ireland next week by French President Francois Hollande.
Pearse Doherty is promoting a business case associated with railway development in Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan.
Jim Sheridan is promoting the Irish film industry with a vision and narrative for the future.
Fad saoil agus sláinte duit.
Grma, Antaine…
“O’Connell himself caused a riot when he visited Belfast in 1841, in his drive to repeal the Act of Union.”
I would dispute this, Jude. Any riot in 1841 was caused by Protestant loyalists against Repeal, Catholicism and O’Connell. O’Connell visited Belfast in 1841 at the invitation of Charles Gavan Duffy. Even before O’Connell arrived in Belfast, hostile crowds, supporters of firebrand Presbyterian Henry Cooke, gathered on the route from Dublin, dubbing O’Connell’s visit an invasion of Ulster. Cooke had previously wanted to publicly debate with O’Connell although O’Connell refused calling Cooke a “bully and cock of the North.” Perhaps this didn’t help, but Cooke was a character in his own right. During his Belfast visit in January 1841, O’Connell had to abandon plans for his original repeal oration due to fear of violence and instead moved his location to Royal Avenue – from there he delivered an oration in favour of repeal from Kean’s Hotel where he was deemed inaudible by Cooke supporters jeering and booing him. An evening Repeal gathering was attacked by loyalist rioters, alleged encouraged by Cooke, as windows were broken and repeaters stoned. Whilst in Belfast, O’Connell also spoke in May street addressing Protestant fears of religious persecution under Repeal and talked about toleration between the religions. Intolerance of O’Connell and fearful for his life and those of his supporters led to O’Connell needing a police escort to Donaghadee where he ferried it to Scotland, en route to Westminster. During the 1830’s, a parliamentary select committee issued a scathing condemnation of the insidious influence of the Orange Order leading Whig Under Secretary, Thomas Drummond, to significantly curb their powers and influence – this before O’Connell has even went near Belfast.
Happy birthday Jude…couple the violence with the wanton destruction of property and roads at their bonfires. . disgraceful…orange fest my eye..they still about being up to their necks.. in
Grma, Liam
Happy birthday jude God.bless u.
Grma. Jim.
Consider the media coverage of the overnight shenanigans – two families burned out of their homes which were absolutely gutted.
But where are the shock, horror headlines?
No, we just get the facts, with no condemnation from any of our politicians who would normally be pushing each other out of the way to condemn atrocities.
Have we heard from the police about their investigations into the perpetrators of this arson?
Has the chief constable been on the airwaves asking for information which might lead to the apprehension of those who organised and ignited the bonfire in a dangerous place?
Nope, no criticism from anyone – two families burned out, well, these things happen – just move on!
Now if it had been a ‘taig’ bonfire ?……….
Would ‘tags’ be so daft as to burn down their own houses?
Happy Birthday,Jude.
Could not One borrow a trick from HMQ and have 2 Birthdays?
One could celebrate quite Royally if the Orange Order would Beat Retreat on one Birthday.
If their apologists confined their Horse Shit Parade to the other Birthday everyone might breathe more freely the rest of the time.
Thank you, Donal. One birthday is quite enough for one…
HB, Jude. Good blog. The conflation of the 12th with violence is well acknowledged by the so called leaders, that’s why be very year they can be heard pleading for a peaceful celebration. It is even mentioned on the British news bulletins, by contrast, one never hears this plea before the Miners’ Gala nor the Nottinghill Festival.
La breithe shona, Jude…Slainte
Grma Michael
Happy Birthday Jude.
Happy Birthday, Jude.
No invite from the OO to use this famous occasion for a joint celebration?
Afraid not, Hist. but grma anyway…
You’re not keen on adorning a bonfire, then Jude!
On the subject of the twelfth, it all depends on where you live I suppose. If you have to watch/listen while little pups sing sectarian songs and throw rubbish everywhere, if you have UDA and UVF and British Parachute flags fluttering outside your house then the twelfth is what it is, a sectarian hate fest. The marching men (it is nearly all men) are ranked according to social standing, the serfs know their place. The bandsmen all seem to be wearing milkmen hats, like the ones from the old films. Bandsmen seem to have grabbed the first pair of trousers they got their hands on from a basket, none of them seem to fit. The fattest member gets the lambeg drum, he is usually called Big Geordie or something, The orange men are wearing Laurel and Hardy style bowler hats. Mind you, Stan and Ollie would never say the things they do.The fact is the Order has been neutered, it`s influence a pale shadow of it`s former `glory`. It is nothing like the hideous gargoyle it was when Mrs Collins gave birth to her baby boy seventy years ago Jude. For that we should all give thanks.
Lá Breithe faoi mhaise duit Jude.
Grma, Brian…
Curious all the same, Esteemed Blogmeister, how the biggest drum in the world is named after a small hamlet which has the Leprechaun for small contained in its name: Lambeg .
Curious too how what was once the biggest pull-out supplement of The Unionist Times has now been whittled down to a small article here, a short letter there. Back in the buoyant Sixties the organ of record on Liffeyside used to hire a train, almost, virtually called ‘The Orange Blossom Special’ to ferry its messianic staff north of the Black Sow’s Dyke to cover all the day’s festivities.
For the benefit of its loyal (small l, of course) readership in the deprived Free Southern Stateen who could then feast their eyes in the July 13 edition on the harmless whoopee being made by their separated breds. The 12 th being essentially of course a joyous cross between a clambake and a celooraloora.
Nowadays, not even that quarter page of sage, ecclesiastical outrage, the Rites and Reason Column (ooh, ahh, up the RaR !) has a dicky b. to chirp about such inconsequential signs as KTP or KAT.
Hmmm.
Could it be that the 12th July today no longer merits the, erm, missionary position it once occupied, mission having been accomplished ?
Little reason to remind uitlanders north of the Black Sow’s Dyke that the Lambeg drum is the loudest accoustic instrument on Planet Sound, often exceeding Little Richard / Risteard Beg himself at his zoot-suited zenith, with its 120 decibels.
Or that the Lambeg drummer uses both a neck harness normally associated with Neddy the Donkey and that the only drumsticks are to be found in the KFC located along the march route: Poultry in Motion, not.
The reason being, of course, is that l’instrument du wallop de rigeur is the malacca cane.
Which begs another question: just how come Lambeg and Malacca have never been twinned ?
Not Siamese twinned, mind, but rather a little more Oriental than that; for Malacca lies on the west coast of Malaya. It’s where Singaporeans pour in for a weekend, not least for the rare pleasure of finger-flicking a ball of flavour-exhausted and formerly pink chewing gum on to the sidewalk with impunity. Without fearing a spell in chokey.
Mind you, there might be a problem of a religious nature here.
The Perkin in his floral bucket hat and down-at-heel white linen tropical suit has pleasantly sweaty if hazy memories of drinking pink gins in memory of Maugham ( Somerset, William) on the wooden verandah of a club that old colonial necromancer used to frequent.
Before venturing forth to – and herein lies the problem mentioned above – stumble (almost) into an open grave. Said yawning void, now devoid of an occupant, is located in the RC church of St. Paul dating back to the time of Portuguese colonialism itself
From 22 March 1553 to 15 April 1553 it actually accommodated the corpse of St.Francis Xavier before its transfer to Goa, where it now lies.
But, of course, this Romanist connection need not necessarily be unsurmountable to the putative twinning of Lambeg and Malacca. Any drummer able to handle a malacca cane is able to handle most conundrums.
Just as Dublin solved the problem of the squarely named, uncool St. Francis Xavier Hall on the North Circular Road by a nifty piece of secular sleight of hand : cue the SFX Rock Centre. So, also a reasonable way around the Malacca difficulty dating from the Portuguese colonials , might be as follows;
-Now that Footie is the new established opium of the global , erm, masses it ought be reasonable to point out that with Portugal the current king-pins in Europe another native of the Iberian Peninsula , name of Xavi, is a revered midfielder, newly retired.
To conclude, by referencing the recent outburst of intolerable sexism or something in the short-lived two-mare race for Number 10. Fittingly, the guilty party, Andrea Leadsom, wife and mother, was compelled to back off. Hissed into withdrawal by the fife-shrill fishwives of feminism.
The same fife-shrill notes to be heard oft and anon, going forward, oddly enough, in the organ of record known as The Unionist Times. This time (singular) in a different but not unrelated context : that of children’s education being controlled by the uncelebrated celibates of the RC persuasion.. Usually expressed along the lines of:
-Childless clerics are hardly the best qualified folk to steer the education of children. These clerics are not stakeholders in the future..
That sorta thingy.
PS Teigh go reidh ar bhainne ime an Phapa inniu, a Mhaistir Ionuin Blog / Go easy on the old Papal buttermilk today , EB.
–
Happy birthday Jude.
Thanks Scott. You are very kind…
Great post Perkin!
GRMA, AJ.
Sweet Jesus. The silly season arrives on sked whether one wants it or not. Pity.
happy birthday jude and many happy returns of the day
Thank you, Ben. It’s pretty good so far…
Re Antaine’s piece above about Pearse Doherty & railways. Five of our thirty two counties don’t have a railway system.Those five are all in Ulster. Is this a coincidence ?
Lá bréitha sona duit agus sláinte !
Grma Michael…
Born on this day – no wonder yer ma named you after St Jude
Indeed, C…
I trust the day went well ,Jude . Refreshments consumed and so forth. Let me again wish you the happiest of birthday greetings and may there be many more birthdays to come.
Go raibh maith agat aris, PK. Agus tú fein…
The Orange Order is the body of all of political Unionism (with exception of maybe the PUP but there is still influence there). Its much more than just a parading body, its a cult. Now that word “Cult” is often used negatively in today’s world but that’s exactly what the Orange Order is: a Cult. It just doesn’t allow any Tom, Dick or Harry to join and rise through its ranks. Its a “Not what you know but WHO you know” society, as is the Unionist community overall.
The facts you pointed out there Jude are obviously correct but it doesn’t include incidents that happened in other parts of the World. The Orange Order has caused riots in Scotland, parts of England, Canada and the USA. Indeed in the 1800’s over 60 Irish Catholic immigrants were killed when the Orange Order, yet again, demanded to march through a Catholic area in New York. Their hostility wasn’t only towards Irish Catholics but all Catholics, including Italian, Polish and German Catholics, who formed the vast bulk of Immigration to the USA then. They were even allied to racist American “Nativist Movements” back then, a preclude to groups like the KKK.
Do the Orange Order want to provoke? Do they want to cause trouble? The short answer is: Yes. Of course they want to, its been proven countless times in their history, they even consider it, perversely, as a “culture”. Why else would they STILL demand to parade through Gravaghy Road? despite it being the anniversary today of the 3 Quinn children who were murdered by the UVF because the Orange Order couldn’t get their way. Just let that sink in, literally stop and think about it for a few seconds…..3 children were burnt to death, a family destroyed (not to mention other families, like those of Michael McGoldrick or Bernadette Martin) just because the Orange Order couldn’t parade down a street………and the Orange Order STILL demand to parade down that street today despite this……despite the fact the troubles of 1998 could be repeated, which they know full well too.
I ask myself this question: What would Ireland, or even just the North, be like if there was no Orange or Loyalist parades? Lets just pretend for a second they never existed. I see the North being maybe around 80-90% less sectarian. I see a lot more integration between Protestants and Catholics. You see, mainland Europe was once like the North in the 1600’s but that died off but it hasn’t died off in the North of Ireland because of groups like the Orange Order. This constant reopening of wounds with parades, flag burnings, preachings of anti-Catholicism is why we are still in the middle ages. And no, the argument of “Both sides are as bad as each other” is a lie, utter lie.
Its my opinion the Orange and Loyal Orders behave in this way because they want to keep sectarianism in our society, they fear Catholics and Protestants coming together, engaging in political debate and exchanging ideas. The Orange Order has been a poison in Ireland (not Protestants, just Orange Order) and I dare anyone to even dispute that because it will be funny seeing them trying to argue.
The most disturbing thing in all of this is the effect this has on young people all of all ages, from the extremely young to the teenager, being exposed to the burning of symbols/flags of a neighbouring community, watching parades from an extremely anti-Catholic organisation and being taught that this is your “culture”…….
(BTW, Happy Birthday Jude, have a good one buddy)
Excellent Ryan. Very well put and too the point and very very correct!
A well put together piece Ryan. As I was reading your piece it made me want to comment but by the time I got to the end you had quite well covered what I had intended saying.
Every time we hear apologists for the Order in the media say the Orange Order is not anti-Catholic but Pro-Protestant every decent person should challenge them. What type of an organisation sets up corporations to prevent Catholics buying land or property?
Could you imagine a media article in the tv news about a company in England set up to prevent non-whites from buying property in a town in the South-East of England?
Could you imagine the consternation of the general public and representatives of black and Asian groups quite rightly outraged? The Government would have the company and its owners investigated and punished. But not here, why not?
We have been so bombarded by unionist media that “criticism of the Order is actually a form of bigotry in itself” that we have actually swallowed it.
BBC and ITV coverage of orange events have allowed it to become sanitised in our minds. Images like those of Paul Clark dancing in front of Orange supporters has helped convince us that it is somehow normal to have this bigoted sectarian organisation commandeer our country for large parts of the year.
Otherwise liberal clear headed people refuse to condem sectarianism associated with the Order lest they by labelled and possibly targeted.
I will give one example of the subtle acceptance of the unacceptable which we shouldn’t tolerate and yet we demand no action. Just prior to the eleventh night a female reporter for the Nolan show was reporting on tyres on bonfires, she was at a bonfire to interview a Unionist councillor but both were threaten by a man to leave the area so they complied. The unionist councillor then refused to go ahead with the interview.
The listeners were not told who the councillor was. Why not? This was an important matter where a criminal act had taken place and yet it was trivialised. My suspicion is she wasn’t named because the reporter or BBC don’t want the story to go anywhere and cutting out the name of a key witness helps this to happen.
I will wager neither the reporter nor the councillor reported the matter to the police to investigate!
And so it becomes OK to threaten anyone who could possibly give negative reports of events around the 12th. The same fear exists among people whose houses are located near bonfire sites yet they get little or no support from their unionist representatives or mainstream media lest they besmirch the 12th and by association the Order.
Happy belted birthday Jude.
Grma Pointis
12 July disturbances and rioting surrounding OO marches, err , excuse me walks, is not restricted to the wee north.
Nasty confrontations between the brethren and the taigs was the order of the day for many years in New York with the pinnacle ( or perhaps more properly the nadir) of bloodshed being attained in 1870 and 1871. In the latter year more than 60 people were killed and hundreds injured when police opened fire.
As far as I know this may be just another record held by the Americans.
However , unlike the situation in the north , the Americans banned these provocative demonstrations permanently and now focus their violence elsewhere.
Hope you have had the Happiest of Days – this day. A day shared with my Canadian born son Michael and my West Limerick born Aunt Norah – all celebrating in British Columbia, Canada.
Thanks John.BC must be nice these days…
“You know you’re getting old, when the candles cost more than the cake.”
Just kidding Jude,
Happy Birthday.
Grma, Jim…Cake? Should there have been a cake??
Well the begrudging Orangemen would probably say;
“Let them eat cake.”
So, let there be cake!