FATHERED BY SATAN-MOTHERED BY BIGOTRY

New Zealand Tablet, 1 April 1920, Page 13

FATHERED BY SATAN-MOTHERED BY BIGOTRY

(By' T. J. McG., in New York Truth':)

T- . We have but too much reason 'to know that the | “Orange fiend” is active both in this country and in Ire- | land. Here it raises its hideous head in the form of anti- | Catholic and pro-English propaganda 1 societies there it ... stirs up religious strife arid murders peaceful • citizens. :

Orangeism is an anomaly in this twentieth century, which can only be explained by a reference to its origin. It was born about the end of the eighteenth century, having the devil for a father and religious hate as a prolific mother. The avowed object was the maintenance of the principles of 1688 and Protestant ascendency. It was a secret society, admission being : by oath, the memoers being known to each other by signs and passwords. No one was admissible save a Protestant, while not alone does conformity to Catholicity exclude from membership, but a similar punishment follows marrying a “Papist.” King William and the principles of the revolution, his creed and colors, were symbolised by the Charter toast of “The Glorious, Pious, and Immortal Memory,” and by the war cry “No Surrender.” Training to the use and the possession of arms have ever been a leading article in the political faith of the Orangemen. A grand Central Executive, with local lodges over the whole country, officered and directed by the nobility, gentry, and magistracy, including high- sheriffs and leading Crown and county officers, with a graduated staff of chaplains, Episcopalian and Presbyterian, make up the fighting strength of the Orange organisation.

Ptv.Orie of their earlier secret articles was: “That we will bear -true allegiance to . his Majesty, his heirs and successors, so long as he or they support the Protestant ascendency,” proving the qualified and conditional loyalty of an Orangeman. And among the other secret articles is; “An" Orangeman is to keep his brother’s secrets as his own, unless in case of murder, treason, and perjury, and of his own free will.”

Daniel O’Connell said, reviewing these oaths; — “See what a crop of crimes the Orangeman is bound to conceal for his brother-Orangeman. Killing a Papist may, in his eyes, be no murder, and he might be bound to conceal that; but he is certainly bound to conceal all cases of riot, maiming, wounding, stabbing, theft, robbing, rape, house-breaking, house-burning, and every other human villainy, save murder, treason, and perjury. These are the good, the faithful, the loyal subjects. They may, without provocation or excuse, attack and assaultgive the first assault, mind, when they are certain no brother can be brought to trouble. They may feloniously and burglariously break into dwellings, and steal, take and carry away whatever they will please to call arms and ammunition. And, if the loyalty of a brother tempts him to go a little further, and to plunder any other articles, or to burn the house, or to violate female honor, his brotherspectators of the crime are bound by their oaths to screen it, for ever, from detection and justice.

The Orangeman of to-day, who is placing obstacles in the way of Ireland’s right to self-determination, whether in the United States, Canada, or Ireland, is just the same bigoted brute as he was in the days of the great liberator, Daniel O’Connell. His objects are the same, and his motives not different. Utterly irreclaimable, dead to every feeling of true citizenship, decency, and charity, the lower class of Orangemen, with the degenerate, moneygrasping Carson standing at the head of the lowest, carry on, as of old, their dirty work with diabolical ingenuity.

The Orange Society is the one discordant faction in Ireland that is opposing self-determination. The morality of factions is never better, generally worse, than that of the individuals who compose them indeed, men acting in masses, with a diminished responsibility, are always more cruel, more vindictive, and more wicked than when acting in their individual capacities. A faction, like a Chicago, Washington, or Omaha mob, has no heart, its grand principle is selfishness, and the mortar which cements it together is chiefly compounded of hatred and hypocrisy. Hence, if it be true of individuals, that they cherish an unforgiving spirit towards those whom they have injured, it must still be more so of factions or parties, who have a common interest in the perpetuation of wrong, and whose selfishness is often envenomed by civil, political, and religious animosity. The sense of their own iniquity . is absorbed in the bitterness of that hatred which it engenders; and such is the depravity of the human heart that men so circumstanced come at length to consider themselves as entitled arid warranted to. prosecute the very system which is pillared and buttressed by injustice, tyranny, and . oppression. It is the unhappy condition of those of the class whom ' we have described, that they can-

not retrace' their steps ;if they would, -, and; that they would not if they could. ....•

This appears to the writer to 'be pretty . near a description of the relation in which the Orangemen,' considered as a faction, at present stand to the Irish people. In the excess of their hatred they have thrown aside the cloak 'of hypocrisy, and have exhibited themselves to ’ the civilisedworld- in all the naked deformity of their real character. - Of their own maxims and motives they have approved themselves the ablest arid most fitting expositors. They have extracted from Machiavelli’s Manual of Tyranny the blackest chapter to be found in that infamous book, and blasphemously sworn on the Gospels that it contained their true creed. It is well that Ireland should know her enemies as well as her friends and it is still better that the former should make, this open and unreserved proclamation of their real character and designs. By this means, the possibility of mistake, on either side, is completely obviated. The Irish people now know, with whom and with what they have to-contend; and wo observe with satisfaction that they have made their preparations accordingly. Their leaders are well aware of the nature of the resistance to be overcome. Experience has taught them that they have nothing to expect from a sense of justice or of right; and that it would be as vain to imagine that a hungry lion would relinquish voluntarily the prey he was devouring, as to dream that the Orange-Tory faction would voluntarily recognise a principle involving the impeachment of their whole system. It will be through the bringing of American opinion to bear on the English Government that the Irish will obtain what justice and wisdom should at once self-determination for Ireland.