Ominous Orange Order...

July Twelfth Marches: The Battle of the Boyne was fought on July 1st and is recalled each July in the celebrations of the Orange Order not on the first day, but on "the Twelfth": eleven days were lost with the change from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1752…the point of this post – ows’s opinion - is at the end in the last sentence but there’s interesting historical details before then if you care to read the whole post!

Originally Irish Protestants had commemorated the Battle of Aughrim on the 12 July - the battle was the bloodiest ever fought on Irish soil with more than 7,000 people killed; it meant the effective end of Jacobitism in Ireland. At Aughrim, the year after the Battle of the Boyne, nearly all of the old native Irish Catholic and Old English aristocracies were wiped out; what was actually celebrated on the Twelfth was not William's "victory over popery at the Battle of the Boyne" but the effective end of the elite of the native Irish at Aughrim; an elite backed by a parliament, largely Catholic and quickly summoned by James II 1689, that had proceeded to introduce repeals of legislation under which Protestant settlers had acquired land – James was supported with arms and men from Louis XIV of France who was using James and Ireland as a way to get at William (of Orange)…all very confusing.

After the Orange Order was founded in 1795 amid - and because of - sectarian violence in Armagh, the focus of parades on July 12th switched to the battle of the Boyne.

All good historical stuff and the aftermath of the Battles had repercussions far beyond The British Isles: “the papal alliance, which many Protestants prefer to gloss over, must also be seen in the context of the times, in which dynastic ambition often outweighed religious allegiance or scruple” explains Derek Brown (The Guardian 12 July 2000…a few years ago but a good, clear article)

The flag above (obviously?) is the flag of the Orange Order, but it is the alternative version: the original was an all orange flag with a purple star which was the symbol of the Williamite forces.

Today’s Orange Order continue to push what could be called the ‘Christain Fundamentalist’ attitude: read the Qualifications of an Orangeman (link through flag) and tell me if it isn't spookily similar to what the Muslim Fundalmentalist terrorists say (link dead)

S.O.