PAGES FROM IRISH HISTORY.

NZ Truth, Issue 57, 21 July 1906, Page 7

PAGES FROM IRISH HISTORY.

11 The Glorious Twelfth. 11

THE GENESIS OF ORANGEISM.

Sir Jonah Barringtoo's Opinion.

"Praise God Ba^bones"— The Purple Orange Toast

'{' Once more has come round the "glorious Twelfth," the anniversary upon which Dill Macky, Woolls Rutledge, and firebrands of that stamp wave the "bloody shirt" and drink the "glorious, pious, and immortal memory" of the good "King Billy." The men and women who form the 12th of July audiences are led to believe by their fire-brand wind-bags that Orangeism is the life and soul of the English constitution. But the Dill Mackys, the Woolls Rutledges, the Wilks, the Lees, the Jesseps, and other empty heads either do not know, or they are cunning -enough to keep the knowledge to themselves, the Genesis of Orangeism. The history of the faction is extant and written m very choice English, and as tbe 12th is close upon us, the story of the- foundation of Orangeism will not be out of place. ILLEGAL SOCIETIES. The Peep-of-Day Boys sprang up m the year 1784, m the county of Armagh, Ireland. It was a secret association, and many Orangemen to-day assert that " its members were Roman Catholics. That, however, is either an error upon their part, or a deliberate lie on the part of their teachers. The "Peep-of-Day Boys" were also known as "The Protestant Boys," then as "The Wreckers" (a very expressive name), and finally as "Orangemen." Amongst the Irish historians was one Richard Musgrave, Baronet. He sat for Lismore from 1778 until the Union, and was a strong supporter of the Government. He got a billet worth £1200 for his Union vote. In his "Memoirs of the Different Rebellions," which has been described as a party work abounding m errors, he displayed such animosity against -the Catholics and outraged public decency so much by his defence of FLOGGINGS AND FREE QUARTERS ! that according to . a long notice of the i work m the "Annual Biography,"^ "the | Irish Government at length , deemed it necessary to disown all connection with the j author, and publicly disclaimed the idea of affording him either patronage or pro- j tection m future." Such a writer as Sir | Richard Musgrave will scarcely be accused of being antagonistic to the Orange faction. Yet he says, "They visited the houses of ! their antagonists" (victims, he should have said) "at a very early hour m the morning to search for arms, and it is most certain that m doing so they often committed the MOST WANTON OUTRAGES— insulting their persons and breaking their j furniture." * * i The ardour of this privileged society could be appeased by nothing short of the Popish lands and tenements of the. Roman Catholic peasantry. We are told that m the fervor of their assumed enthusiasm for the diffusion of pure religion, they posted the following controversial notice on the doors of the benighted Romanists: "TO HELL OR CONNAUGHT." • * • In the beginning of 1796, Plowden says that 7000 Roman Catholics had been forced or burned out of the county of Armagh, and that the ferocious banditti who had expelled them had been encouraged, connived at, and protected by the Government, In, the analysis of the report of the committee on ORANGE INSTITUTIONS m the "Edinburgh Review" of January, 1836, the following account is given of the "Peep of pay Boys," and of their more systematic atrocities m 1795, under the newly-adopted name of Orangemen :— The first Orange Lodge was formed on the 21st September, 1795, at the house of a man named Sloan, m the obscure village of Loughgall. The immediate cause of those disturbances m the North that gave birth to Orangeism was an attempt to PLANT COLONIES OF PROTESTANTS on the farms or tenements of Catholics, who had been forcibly ejected. Numbers of them were, seen wandering about the country, hungry, half naked, and infuriated. Mr. Christie, a member of the Society of Friends, who to have passed sixty or seventy years on his property as quietly as any man may, m the neighborhood of such violent neighbors,

gives a painful account of the outrage* ] then committed. He says "he heara of j sometimes twelve and fourteen Catholic | houses wrecked m a night, and some destroyed." "That this commenced m the neighborhood of Churchill, between Porcadown and Dunganuon, and then it extended over nearly all the northern counties. In the course of time, after many of the Catholics weire driven from the county, and had taken refuge m different i parts of Ireland, I understood they went j to Connaught. Some years after, when } peace and quietness was m a measure re- | stored, some returned again, pvobably five ; ; or six years afterwards. The property j which they left was transferred m moso j instances to Protestants, where they had j houses and gardens and small farms of i land. It was generally handed over by j "the landlords toTrotestant tenants. That j occurred within my knowledge." He fur- j ther says.— "lt continued for two or three j years, but was not quite so bad m l/»o - and 1797 as it was earlier. After this : wrecking and the Catholics were driven j out, what was called THE BREAK O* DAY PARTY j merged into Orangeism. They passed j •' from one to the other, and the gentlemen ) m the county procured what they termed . their Orange warrants, to enable ttomto r assemble loyally, as they termed it. The ; name dropped, and Orangeism succeeded the Break of Day Men." , *. « * At first the Orange Society was confined to the lower orders (as it is to-day), but it worked its way upwards. The landlords got bold of it, as being an easy way towards their own ends, chiefly rack-renting. In November, 1798, rules and regulations were drawn up and submitted to the Grand Lodge of Ireland. The state of the courtry soSfc** 1 after the formation of those' lodges may be : j gauged by the address of Lord Gosford, Governor of Armagh, to the magistrates of the county. The Governor stated that he had called them together to submit a plan to their consideration, for checking the enormities which DISGRACED THE COUNTY. He said:— . "It is no secret that a persecution, ac- . companied with all the circumstances of ferocious cruelty, which have, m ah ages, distinguished that dreadful calartily, is now raging m this country. 0 eithefage--nor acknowledged" innocence^ as to the late disturbances, is sufficient to excite ; mercy— much less afford protection. vheV only crime of which the wretched objelefca > of this merciless persecution are charg^j; I with, is a crime easy of proof — it vfe simply a profession of Roman Catholiw faith. A lawless banditti have coristip tuted themselves judges of the specieS| of delinquency, and the sentence thejjfjj pronounce is equally concise and .terriblejj^' it is nothing less than a confiscation 6!p all property and inimndiato banishment^ It would be extremely painful, and sure^J ly unnecessary to detail the horrors ,that| attended the execution of so wide ... anci|. tremendous a" proscription, which cer-*| tainly exceeds, m the comparative nun*! ber of those it consigns to rub/ an<i| misery, every example that ancient" analf modern history can afford; for whorejs have we heard, or m what ;jj HISTORY OF HUMAN CRUELTIES' ;-| have we read, of more than half th&vl inhabitants of-a , populous country de<| • prived, at one blow, of the means, astf well as the fruits of their industry, and,| driven m the midst of *an inclementij! ' winter, to seek a shelter for themselves! and their hapless families where chanco'} may guide them? This is no exaggefaif, ted picture of the horrid scenes now' ae^ ing m this country. Yet surely it. hrV sufficient to awaken sentiments of indig- j nation and compassion m the coldest j heart. Those horrors are now acting. \ and acting with impunity. The spirit o'ijfj impartial justice (without which jaw -isf'i nothing better than ' tyranny) haB^foYi|;| time disappeared in -this country, an J^ the supineness\of the magistracy Is >M topic of conversation irv>very part off this kingdom." "^—v.-^^^ • * -...■•»'■'" ''" ~ : '- The resolutions moved by Loud Gosford; were adopted, and signed by all the leafe ing magistrates, who thus bore undeiiiablßS testimony to the persecution the Catholic^ were then suffering m that country, whichj was the cradle, and has ever been . .v y ™ THF HOT-BED QF ORANGEISM., | That extraordinary "mixture" Sir.^na|| on^r^t^°uSoS f neighborhood was thel former powers and privileges, at the de^ parS, of James the Second. According to Sir Jonah their meetings were ehiaflW fir the indulgence of that kind of che^f feltivi?y, IhL is indicative of gu^gS, or successful onslaughts, pa^l or expected. 3 Their grand festival was on the Ist Juty*! the anniversary of the -v?f . BATTLE OF THE BOYKE, '■ /4 ■ on which occasion the Charter-toast was| drunk by every member on his bare knees^l At the time of Sir Jonah Barringtdhs initia-3 tion, his" friend, Patrick Duigeuan, LL-D..J was the Grand Master." The standing disb^l at the Skinner's Alley dinners, was sheep s3 trotters, m delicate allusion to King J f™'~f£| last use of his lower extremities m Ireland ?\| and the cloth being removed, the. Charter-! toast, the antiquity of which was of so au-^ cient a date as 1639, Was pronounced by -Jfim Grand Master oi his bare jomi^o^^neel*| ing assemblage m the following words-- i -"To| the glorious, pious, and immortal memory,! of the great and good- King William, nofcj forgetting Oliver Cromwell, who assisted . inj redeeming us from popery, sliveiy, afbitrary| power, brass money, vouden shbes, etc.'<| The concluding part of this loyal toast is a| tissue ' I OF VULGAR INDECENCIES # and impious imprecations on "priests.. bish-](; ops, deacons," or any other of the fraternity | of the clergy who refuse this toast, consign-^ ing their members to the operation of red-'j hot harrows, and their mangled carcases' toj the lower regions. yd In detailing these brutal, drunken orgies^ Sir Jonah says "it may be amusing to/ja^ . scribe them"— and then he denominates the jj association as "a very curious, but mosbq loyal society," and that their favorite roasts was afterwards adopted by the Orange sck.j cieties, and was stillconsidered the Charter*'-; toast of them all. ;j ' I i' Mm ""■■»— . ;-"i