THE ORANGEMAN

New Zealand Tablet, 13 November 1919, Page 11

THE ORANGEMAN

I.':? .. ; r . (By D. Willoughby,, in Everyman.) "; -. ..; ;_ ; V; « .• ■- ■ » . * r ,- -iv ■; -■•.■, ■:' -■.-■■ ■•'•-■,-v Vs* I'.'.T'•■.!;lS' f:.■:£ • "The time has been, -'"■'/'■: .^'/^^ I That, when the brains were out, the man would die, ; | And there an end."—"Macbeth." :/ '^V; | Some six years ago I was in "Ulster. Were Ito write that!six years ago I had been in Bedfordshire, Birmingham, or Berlin, and had ; observed : this or that, I should be rightly told that-; my observations had for some time ceased to. have any bearing on practical politics, and, in that curiously constructed phrase, reminded that "there had been a war on." No such objection, however, can be: raised to my Ulster memories. In that part of the world they have a different scale of historical values, and, among the Orangemen, its most vocal representatives, things are much as when I saw them last, and not very different from what they were in the years of the Boyne and Aughrim. Sir Edward Carson's latest contribution to Irish debate has been to liken Sir Horace Plunkett to an individual who gained some notoriety in the past by trying to betray Derry to King ~ James. Into the justice of the comparison one need not go, but it appears to be far-fetched; fetched, in fact, from tKvo hundred years ago. A character in Mr. Britling once spoke of Sir Horace as a doctrinaire dairyman, showing that, despite political virus, she kept an open eye on current events, including co-operative creameries. : But the Orange leader will have none of this cant of modernism and living and learning. He is angry because some people in England have lately altered their ideas, on the propriety of resisting the laws by force of arms, and tries to abash them by proclaiming that he never changes his views. Will some opponent please strike a blow at the Belfast linen industry by never changing his shirt, and trying to persuade the public to follow his example ? .-,iA--.,i. ; ■ • Six years ago I saw in Ulster squads of respectable citizens forming fours almost as well as the average British Territorials of those days. ; No secret was made of their accomplishments, and I saw no reason to doubt that they had almost as many guns as they told me they had. Possibly they ; have as many now, and probably .they drill much better, for many of them have been in the regular army. That they are as dangerous as they were is, however, ■ untrue. In those clays they thought they had British, opinion behind them, and that their front, line would consist of British bayonets. One of their leaders boasted that they had the professional army in their pockets. In "> certain eventualities more than half the senior officers on the active list would have asked to be relieved of their

commissions, and many of the juniors were willing to go further. Young men who had only played at war were daring, and the women they met at dances were encouraging.' A military friend of mine, who knew nothing of politics and cared less, but was a hot Nationalist when roused, put his name to any number of covenanting documents when he was given to understand that the cursed English Government meditated some harm to old Ireland. A couple ; of years later, when his battalion was sent to the Ulster. Division, he made amends by leading his men into their new camp to the tune of the Shan Van Vocht. However, in 1913 the situation was really formidable, and the Orange leaders did not hesitate to exploit it. “What wo want,” said a colonel of volunteers, “is to frighten our little king.” He never put an envelope into the post without sticking on the back a red, white, and blue seal, inscribed with the motto, “Support Loyal Ulster.” f - The-fighting spirit of the Orangemen may be as strong as ever, but in other breasts it has weakened. Most of us have had a surfeit of war, even including those who, so to speak, were born soldiers. General Gough has become a champion of conciliation, and whatever chieftains may repair to the Curragh of Kildare, he will not be of them. Sir, Henry Wilson, one fancies, may, after his friendship with Marshal Foch, have come to think more charitably of Papists. With the income tax at its present level, and the price of coal still soaring, Lady Catherine Milnes-Gaskell might have fewer customers than of old for those orange lilies she used to sell in aid of Ulster’s plan of campaign. " The time has been when the Orange Lodges could look for a good deal of support from financial interests "in England, anxious to embarrass any Cabinet of which Mr. Lloyd George-was a member. That desire is dead; ((/ Stalwarts:: of Belfast, Ballyntoney, and Ballymena" have proved what splendid soldiers they are, and have made , great sacrifices in a great cause. , Also, they are deeply religious, but. neither courage nor • creed ; prevents them from having a due respect for Mammon. The time has come when, if Ulster were to flight, Ulster would not be right in-expecting,her, battle to be a paying proposition.

- Visitors to Belfast can never avoid seeing the Town Hall. | Usually ; there is- an Orangeman (present to say that' 90 per cent, of its cost s was paid in Protestant money, and he generally adds .the information that; 90 per cent, of the paupers -■ in the workhouse are" Catholics. I once questioned a member r of ' the""order on what were his real fears « for • the!; future under> Home Rule. He began by contrasting the native Irish (unfavorably with Kurds,? Albanians, - and : other strange ; folk 5 who ' were then held to be first-class « practitioners in ( frightfulness. -He ended by saying that a Dublin . Government \ would F reduce (the'number, of posts he had a day from three to one, and he let me know that that would be bad for his business. Amongst Orangemen (money , talks. It talks even more loudly than Sir Edward Carson.-J Merchants and manufacturers may consign' the Pope to hell before breakfast,' but they like to find their letters waiting for them r at the ; office afterwards. Nobody dreams of asking the War Office or the Admiralty to coerce Ulster. It is Mr. Illingworth who holds the key to the situation. Men who would sing “Boyne Water” if the great gun of Athlone were pointed in their faces, would sing small after a week’s .interruption of mail orders. . . .. . - "C

Coercion, even postal coercion/- is a thing (of which one is sorry to talk, but the Orangeman is making himself a nuisance. The eternal drumming by which he keeps his convictions hot is an abominable din in other, ears. One is tired of his talk about Aughrim and" the Boyne and his other glorious victories, not forgetting (Dolly’s : Brae, that disreputable scuffle where his grandfathers killed an idiot boy. Others say sarcastically that Queen Anne is dead, but were one to "telegraph. the’ news to Ulster it would presumably cause turmoil, for there still seem to be places there where her accession to the throne has not yet been notified. Eminent divines have cried out against the habit of toasting King William as almost akin to the Popish practice of praying for' the dead, but your true Orangeman merely says, “A fig for the Bishop of Cork,” spits on the floor of the lodge hall, and takes another drink to the memory of the Great Whig Deliverer. A few years ago an Ulster pastor talked of asking William’s aid for his threatened flock. Unkind people said he meant the Kaiser; of course he meant the Dutchman. Those of us who live a little more in the present or future feel that the Orange ghost must not be allowed to stalk the land much longer. For obvious reasons, one cannot hope to put it to rest by the usual formula of priest and holy water, hut in days which are already dark enough “putting out the sunrise with a bucket of the Boyne” cannot be endured. The ghost has done too much mischief in the past, and it threatens more. It still scares timid souls by standing in every alley that can lead to peace and friendship with the Irish people. A ridiculous survival of seventeenth-century bigotry, it pits itself against an understanding with the United States and the consummation of man’s noblest hopes in the League of Nations. Sir Edward Carson has stood easy whilst thousands of Lutherans are handed over to the rule of Catholic Poland. His simple followers are taught that a raffle for their watches has already been held at the chapel against the day when Ireland is a nation once again. That is why the Pope has such a bad name in Portadown. Six'years have added only one argument to the Grangeman’s stock. He says that he has fought for the Empire, and so can do what he likes in it. The same thing is being said by colliers, policemen, and burglars in respect to their several intentions of ? striking or working, but the convenience of , the rest of the population must occasionally be studied.. “We will not brook interference in our affairs,” says Sir Edward Carson, late law officer of the Crown, “by any country, however powerful. Roger Casement in the dock said, “Put me before a jury of my countrymen.” Both made the same mistake. Neither realised the great truth of our times, that no(. country, not even Ireland, or a part of it, lives to itself alone. /