“What is legal is not necessarily moral”, Pope Leo XIV said in Lourdes on 27 Sept 2026. Pope Leo was referring to euthanasia which has been legalised in France and other countries in Europe.
How relevant are these words from Pope Leo during the latest attempt by the Orange Order to walk down the Garvaghy Road having got the permission of the Parades Commission and the Courts. The leaders of the Orange Order insist that they are only doing what the law allows. They have, they say, a legal right to walk on the Garvaghy road but do they have a moral right?
The aim of the Orange Order is not just to walk down a road in Portadown but to walk OVER the Catholic/Nationalist people who live there. That has been the aim of the Orange Order since it first decided to be Protestant supremacist organisation in the 1800s. Why did they decide after almost 30 years of no parading to parade again along the Garvaghy road? They well knew that it would provoke a reaction from the people who had suffered so much in the past.
The Orange Order was formed in Armagh in 1795 by the Anglican Ascendancy who had taken over the land in Ireland. In the early days it was just as opposed to dissenting Protestants (mostly Presbyterians) as it was to Catholics. They were regarded as a threat to their supremacy.
The original Orangemen regarded Presbyterians as a threat to their political and economic power. Many Presbyterians were forced to emigrate to the USA where they played a big part in the war of Independence and the formation of the United States.
In the early days, Presbyterians and Catholics were barred from membership of the Order. In the early days of its existence it was led and controlled by the Protestant- Anglican Ascendancy class. However, through manipulation and bribery Presbyterians were persuaded to join with the Anglicans in this anti-Catholic organisation.
It was set up by the Protestant Anglican Ascendancy along the lines of the Masons to prevent Catholics or independent minded Presbyterians from ever gaining wealth and power in Ireland.
The British government used the Orange Order to divide the people of Ireland along religious lines by convincing the Protestant people in the northeast that they were the privileged people and that Catholics were a real threat to them and their security.
This colonial mentality is opposed to equality, justice and freedom. The colonial mentality believes in interfering in people’s lives, whether next door neighbours or native people on the other side of the world.
We had the colonial mentality in the form of the RUC, B-men, the UDR, the RIR the Orange order who could never mind their own business but had to be always interfering with their Catholic neighbours in all aspects of their lives. They wanted to show the Catholic neighbour who was in charge so they had their many triumphalist parades to remind the Catholic people who was in charge.
The latest attempt by the Orange to parade down the Garvaghy Road shows that they have not gone away but still have the colonial mentality which is a supremacist mentality. That has to be confronted and defeated if we are ever to live in peace and harmony in Ireland.
So far the residents of the Garvaghy Road have stood firm in opposition to the Orange parade and many from all over the world have stood in solidarity with the people of Garvaghy Road. All right- thinking people see that there is a moral principle at stake here and it must be upheld for the sake of peace and justice.
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